


Hide Your Flesh

by MinzeySparkleIsPerfect8



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tokyo Ghoul, Cannibalism, F/M, Fukawa makes an appearance but it doesn't last long, Ishimaru Kiyotaka & Pekoyama Peko Are Siblings, M/M, The prologue doesn't get to main character yet, Togami's hiding something
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2018-11-29 09:30:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 35,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11438019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinzeySparkleIsPerfect8/pseuds/MinzeySparkleIsPerfect8
Summary: Mondo Oowada is a normal teenager with rebellious personality, a nagging brother, his own gang and a big problem with ghouls.He didn't expect to find that one person close to him would turn out to be one of those creatures





	1. Prologue

White flakes kept descending from the grey clouds, gently blending into blood stained snow.

 

In fright, a short haired brunette raised his head. His face bore wide eyes, eyes that held fear and dread. 

 

He quickly drew his lavander eyes away from the unconscious raven he held in his bandaged arms to look upon the savage ghouls fighting a few miles away from the injured duo. 

 

Shit has really gone down in his life. It was only getting worse.

 

The deafening sound of breaking walls made him snap his head to face the cause of the sound, only to scream when he saw the shattered pieces of brick falling his way. Immediately he covered his companion's body with his own, foolishly forgetting that he himself wasn't a ghoul.

 

He wasn't expecting smaller crumbling pieces of the material to collide with his back. The brunette looked up and his frightened eyes gained their happy warmth at the sight of the familiar face.

 

"... it's you..." He managed to whisper, not phasing the red eyed ghoul before him. His hair was now a clear white, longer than it was before that it could cover his bushy eyebrows,  "...It really is you..."

 

The ghoul spoke no words and reached over to the human's face, pulling a hair back that kept getting in his eyes. The brunette could now see how damaged he was now that the ghoul was closer.

 

"You keep forgetting," the snow white haired ghoul smiled softly, "you're not a monster like me."

 

Those words pierced the human at his core and pursuaded him to retort to that statement... If only he could do it without those cold lips pressed against his own.


	2. Where It All Started

* * *

 

 

Touko Fukawa felt her heart close to jumping out of her chest, Byakuya Togami was actually asking her out. Her cheeks flowed red as the heir before her took her hand and walked out of the school library with her, this was a dream come true.

 

"So you wrote so many books as a child, I find that really impressive." Byakuya spoke as he carried the girl's books.

"T-thank you, nobody ever a-appreciates my talent..." The braided hair girl spoke timidly.

"They should, you have a wonderful gift." Byakuya smiled as his complement made Touko blush even more.

"N-no I don't! All I do is w-write books for a living."

"Don't be so stubborn. You actually have a great talent."

"T-thank you... So, will we be meeting up at the new r-restaurant that opened up?" 

"Of course we will," Byakuya said as Touko opened her dorm for him. He gently placed her books on her desk. "I will pick you up at 4:00."

 

Once the tall boy had left her room, Touko squealed in happiness. First, she gets enrolled into a new school, second, no one picks on her, third, Genocidor Syo hasn't come out in a while, and fourth, the cutest boy she has ever met asks her out on a date! She could just feel like a princess in a fairytale.

 

Things were actually going pretty well.

 

* * *

 

 

"Fukawa, I was wondering if you could write any crime stories." Byakuya questioned as he read one of the girl's books. That made the girl think for a moment.

"W-well, I guess I could try..." She answered while stuttering.

"You know, when I think about it, Genocidor Syo hasn't been active in a while."

"That's g-good! I-I wouldn't want her to be killing innocents, or maybe even kill you!"

"Her?"

"Ah! Well I- uh... All of S-Syo's victims are male, r-right? It can b-be safe to assume that Syo might p-possibly be a girl..." Touko quickly gave an excuse, not noticing the obvious smirk on Byakuya's face.

"... that's actually quite smart, well done, Fukawa. And from the images of her victims, it is obvious that Syo isn't a ghoul."

"Eek! G-Ghouls give me the willies! Can we not t-talk about them?!"

"Of course."

 

Touko then noticed how Byakuya had nothing but a cup of coffee with him while she had coffee and a sandwich.

"All y-you have is coffee... A-are you not going to order anything?..."

"Thank you for your concern, but I'm not hungry." 

"O-Oh... Alright t-then..."

"It will be my treat, you and I deserve to spend time together."

 

The oblivious girl continued blushing, not aware of the situation she was getting herself into.

 

* * *

 

 

Touko hooked her arm with Byakuya's as he walked her back to their dorms, although... The way he was leading her didn't seem like they were going to their school.

 

"U-umm... Byakuya? W-where are we going?"

"I'm taking you to your home, it is the weekend tomorrow," Byakuya answered kindly while Touko blushed violently. "Isn't that what a prince charming does?"

"Yes! I-I mean yes... You are really b-brave to walk me h-home... That's where plenty of g-ghoul activity have b-been going on..."

"I'm only going to make sure you come to your home safely, I wouldn't want any ghoul to attack you."

 

Touko then hugged the heir, stopping him in his tracks. This was the first time, on the entire date, where she touched Byakuya willingly and confidently, not when they went to the library or the restaurant but now.

 

"Byakuya... Y-you make me feel less scared... I-I hope we'll stay close to e-each other..." The braid wearing girl hoped, her blush and heart beat getting stronger as Byakuya returned her hug, "... because we have some kind of connection..."

"You could say that... But..." Touko opened her eyes to see some form of red and dark blue flowing upwards as it formed itself into a wing like body part, embedded on the area of Byakuya's shoulders, "...you and I  _will_  have some kind of connection..." 

 

Byakuya made no hesitation as he buried his teeth into Touko's shoulder, she wasn't aware of her current situation until he removed his blood stained lips and that's when the pain set in. Touko thrashed around as she pushed Byakuya away and fell to the floor, crying in fear.

 

She looked back up at Byakuya, seeing that he had some kind of wings that looked beautiful but dangerous, his hair covered his left eye as the right changed the white to black and the blue iris into red.

 

"I'm not doing this because I want to eat, I'm doing it because you're a threat!" The heir yelled as the upper wings hardened before firing sharp crystals at the vulnerable girl.

"AHH!" The girl cried out as her skin was sliced open.

"You talk about Syo easily while you can't stand the thought of ghouls!" The heir insulted, even though it was true.

 

As the girl gripped her shoulder, she quickly went into a sprint, running as fast as she could until Byakuya used his speed to get behind Touko and give a strong kick in her back, sending her flying across the alleyway.

"Well don't think I don't know your secret, Genocidor Syo!" That moment, Touko's eyes widened in shock. How was he able to find out?

"...B-Byakuya... H-how?...W-Why?..." The shy girl weakly muttered as his kagune hardened once again.

"I'm doing this so you won't put more people at stake," He pushed his glasses back to hide his guilt and shame from her weeping face, "you're nothing but a murderer."

"I-I'm n-not a m-mur-derer-" she sobbed, unable to register the sudden foot that crunched her leg to the ground, she could just whimper.

"Wrong!"

 

The kagune threw it's sharp crystals at her once more, making Touko spit out blood and cry even harder.

"I-I-"

"Genocidor Syo is a liability to ghouls, you could probably end up killing someone to make it look like one of us did it. But right now... You're dying alone..."

"...B-Bya..."

"Like all your victims..."

"...kuya..."

"You won't endanger us anymore..."

 

With that sentence, Byakuya slammed his foot into Touko's head, her skull breaking at the force of the foot and her blood spraying onto his face.

 

He sighed and wiped the blood off his glasses as his kagune formed back into nothing.

"I'm sorry... But this is how it has to be..." He muttered before bending down, lifting her body as the crushed head fell back, exposing the paling throat. Once the teeth had sunken in, he began to feast on what he could devour.

 

* * *

 

 

Mondo quickly grabbed his jacket from the coat hanger, ready to 'learn' at his school. The sudden but normal cry of his brother made him internally groan.

"Mondo! Remember to not stay out after dark for too long, the-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. The ghouls will be out." The pompadour wearing teenager sarcastically said as he quickly put on his usual leather jacket.

"I'm serious, Mondo. I don't want ya' to be dead." Daiya said from his living room, the older sibling has been getting more worried about the younger because of the recent ghoul activity.

"Don't worry, big bro. I have a better chance at being struck by lightning than getting attacked by a ghoul." Mondo smirked playfully as he shut the door and ran over to his girl, AKA motorcycle.

 

It only took like five minutes to arrive at the school, it was almost time for the classes to start.

"Hey Mondo!"  The said teen turned his head to see that usual grin on Leon Kuwata's face.

"Hey Leon, what's up?" Mondo spoke with a sense of joy that no one at school will be nagging at him. The two friends gave a usual but cheesy handshake that they would always do before walking off into the building to continue their conversation.

"Nothing much but hey, I just found out that there's this one café we can both go to after school." 

"Really?"

"Yeah, we can bring Fujisaki with us!"

"I'm starting to notice that you get excited for things that don't really matter."

 

The all-star and gang leader soon entered their classroom but we're soon caught by Kiyotaka.

"Kyoudai, Kuwata! Do you have any explanation for your tardiness?!" The white clad wearing boy lectured.

"Good to see you too, Taka(!)" Mondo spoke up, unnaturally polite despite the small hint of sass.

"No. It's not good, half of the class arrives late to continue where we left off in our education! You two are lucky the bell didn't ring yet."

"Taka, do you really have to lecture us? The whole class is here now."

"Not entirely. Fukawa still hasn't arrived yet."

"Well lecture her and not us." Leon muttered as he used his arms to hold his head.

"I guess you are right. Just go and take a seat please, and try to arrive before the bell is about to ring.

 

**DING-DONG-BING-BONG**

 

The rest of the students sat down as the teacher came in but she didn't have the usual smile on her face to tell everyone to pull out their utensils. Instead, she had a solemn look as she turned to face her students.

 

"Students, I'm afraid I have some grave news," the teacher spoke with a sense of draught in her voice, "last week, there was a recent murder... The body was almost unidentifiable but the DNA research has confirmed..." Mondo unconsciously held his breath, it couldn't have been anyone in his class, nor Kiyotaka or his brother... But he hasn't seen most of his gang in a while... "your classmate, Touko Fukawa... Has been killed."

 

The classroom went quiet so suddenly after some gasps were heard.

 

"It was believed to be either a murder of Genocidor Syo or a ghoul attack, though the latter is most likely the case. I'm sorry for those of you who were close to her."

 

Half of the class looked down at their desks to mourn for the deceased girl while the rest just looked at the teacher for more information.

 

Mondo just looked at the desk next to the window, where Touko would just be fawning over Byakuya because he sits in front of her but now she's dead. Sure, she and Mondo never really talked to each other but Touko seemed to be that one person who was actually quite nice once you got to know them.

 

 _Fukawa... How did you die? Why did you die?_ Mondo start thinking, a hatred for ghouls simply expanding,  _Ghouls... I hate them, they don't deserve to live if they're just going to kill innocents. What I'd give to see one die in front of me._

 

* * *

 

The classes finished early as people remained uncomfortable and depressed for Touko's death, others just went off to do what they like, but it felt sick on how easy they all forgot about Touko. 

 

Leon and Mondo, however, they were still planning on going to the café, Chihiro trailing behind them. The look of disappointment on Mondo's face would impress many since the café that Leon brought them to was the one they had already passed while walking.

"Are you an idiot, Leon?" The tallest of the trio complained.

"Huh?"

"We already went past this one!"

"Oh well."

"Grrr, I oughta-"

"Okay, we're here now, can we go inside and have something to eat?" Chihiro quickly retorted to make sure a fight didn't spur between the two.

"Fine." Mondo groaned, pretty pissed that an extra five minutes of his time was wasted.

"Let's go!" Leon opened the door and the small group heard the bell ringing as the door opened. "Hey people, what's up? I'm home!"

 

Mondo's eyes lit up once he saw Kiyotaka, working as one of the waiters at this café. The way he carried the foods to the customers was absolutely elegant. As Leon led his two friends to an empty table, he couldn't help but notice how his gang leader friend was staring at the hall monitor.

 

"H-hey Taka!" The gang leader spoke out, Kiyotaka looked up and his own eyes had brightened into the sparkling rubies Mondo recognised, he smiled when he saw his best friend.

"K-Kyoudai, how are you?" The black haired boy walked a bit closer to his friends.

"You didn't tell me you had a job."

"It's part-time, there's an empty table over there. Feel free to sit in it, I will be with you in a second."

 

The group of three did as they were told and Kiyotaka went over to the kitchen of the café, not aware of his best friend staring at him with a small blush.

 

"Mondo, if you keep staring at him, I will personally tell him your secret." Leon slyly muttered.

"What secret?" The older teen avoided the question as he looked in the other direction.

"You know," the redhead smirked before whispering, "you like Ishimaru."

"No I don't!" Mondo retorted in the most tsundere way.

"Really? Then why were you staring at him?"

"I-I... Well- I was just thinking about getting him to help me with my grades! That's all that I need, fucktard!"

"Wow(!) Look it's easy to ask someone out," Leon looked around for a moment before his eyes caught sight of a pretty blonde, "watch this. Excuse me, miss!"

 

The blonde turned around quickly and Leon's eyes grew shocked when he saw that the blonde was actually Byakuya Togami.

"I'm a boy, get it right." He spoke with a hint of irritation.

"T-Togami?"

"That is my name but it isn't dick so keep it out of your mouth."

"Sorry, dude! I didn't expect you to be working here, much less look like a girl!"

 

As Leon tried to apologize to the heir, Mondo and Chihiro finally broke down in laughter.

 

"Very funny, guys(!)" Leon then turned back to Byakuya, "are you going to take our order?"

"What is it that you would like?" Byakuya held out a pen and notebook.

 

"I'll have a Cappuccino." Chihiro spoke up as Byakuya wrote the order down.

"Grilled baguette, I haven't tried any of those yet." Mondo said as he looked through the menu.

"I'd like a glass of date!" Leon cheered as he went ahead to show off, Mondo looked at him as if he were crazy while Chihiro facepalmed at the pick up line.

"What?" Byakuya looked up from his notebook.

"Togami, are you going out with anyone?!" 

 

The moment Leon got up in Byakuya's face to ask him that question, the blonde jumped and just ran over to the kitchen with what seemed to be a blush.

"Way to go, Leon." Mondo sarcastically said, rolling his eyes as the all-star sat back down.

"Hey, that's my way of asking out people!"

"Who on earth would just go up to a person and say 'are you dating anyone?!" In their face? And I don't think I wanna get banned from this place, I have enough of those."

 

Once their orders arrived, Leon apologized to Byakuya but he didn't get a straight answer.

 

Soon, Chihiro had to leave to go help their dad with work and then Leon, who needed to go to baseball practice.

 

It was Mondo left alone in the café. He then got up and walked over to Kiyotaka.

 

"H-hey, Taka," he stuttered on the first line.

"Oh, hello, Kyoudai! Is there anything you'd like?"

"Umm, no. Listen, I was actually wondering... if you wou..." Mondo started lowering the volume of his voice in complete nervousness.

"I'm sorry, I didn't get that."

"Will you go ou..." Again, low tone of voice.

"I can't hear you."

"I-I can walk you to your home!" Mondo yelled, pretty much scared and nervous at the same time.

 

He looked at Kiyotaka's face, no sense of disgust or shock but instead... A smile.

 

"Thank you for your concern, Kyoudai but you really don't have to-"

"No, I do. What if a ghoul ends up attacking you? I don't want the same thing that happened to Fukawa happen to you! No bastard of a ghoul will get my friend while I'm there to protect you!"

 

Kiyotaka smiled and looked at the clock.

"Well, my shift will be over in about 10 minutes so why not? Just wait for me in a seat."

 

Kiyotaka walked away and Mondo sat down. If he could do a back flip in any public place, then he would but this was a café and he was not going to get banned.

 

* * *

 

 

Mondo was actually thinking about holding Kiyotaka's hand while they walked but that would be going to far.

 

"You didn't tell me that both you and Togami worked at a café, much less Togami." He spoke up to strike a conversation.

"Well, uh... Recently, Togami's father cut him off from all his money so now he needed a job." Kiyotaka thought a good excuse as to why Byakuya was actually working there, he didn't want anyone else to find out about his secret.

 

Mondo could feel like his crush was lying but right now he wanted more information.

"Well, the bastard always deserved it for being a dick," he didn't notice how Taka began tensing up, "are you two the only ones who work there?"

"No. There's also Maizono-chan, Ibuki-chan, Tanaka-san and Souda-san, the café actually belongs to Tanaka-san's mother."

"I didn't know that." Mondo smiled as Kiyotaka held onto his arm.

 

But he was completely unaware of the red mist behind them, which was seemingly leaking from Taka's lower spine.

 

"Hey, what time is it?" Mondo asked as he checked his wrists for a watch.

"8:15, why?"

"I still got time, my brother now wants me to come home early because of all those ghouls. Man, I fucking hate them..." He didn't notice how Kiyotaka tensed up at the sudden unnecessary comment, "they just kill and eat and don't even feel any guilt or remorse towards their fucking actions. It explains why Fukawa died, the bastard who killed her deserves to suffer. Torture him for all I care, all ghouls are a bunch of cockroaches... They have to die. Heh, when did I become so violent, I'm a lot nicer with my gang-"

 

Mondo looked besides him to see that Kiyotaka wasn't there, he looked back and saw that the white clad boy was looking at the ground. As Mondo went ahead to walk closer to him, he stopped at the sudden sight of red tendrils appearing behind Kiyotaka, where his lower back would be.

 

"...You want ghouls to die?..." The sudden question only made Mondo more anxious, "Does that mean... You wish my death?"

 

As Kiyotaka looked up at Mondo, the gang leader saw that his scleras turned from white to black while his red irises stay the same. 

 

Although he never saw one for himself, Mondo could identify what was in front of him but he just was refusing to believe it.

 

"Uh... Cool eyes, bro?..." He smiled a weak smile, Kiyotaka only frowned deeply and began to take a step forward.

"..." The silence made Mondo return the action by stepping back.

"...s-seriously, bro...I was talking about ghouls, you can't really be of them."

"So there's a 'them'?" The noirette hissed bitterly.

 "Y-you know what I meant... You can't be a...a..." Mondo's eyebrows furrowed in fear as he finished the sentence, ...ghoul..."

 

With that word, Kiyotaka swung his kagune at his own friend. Only swipes could make Mondo fearing for his life as he was attacked by his crush.

 

"You have no idea how horrible it is to even live as a ghoul!" Kiyotaka yelled as he attempted another failed strike, "have you ever considered that ghouls don't have a choice on what they eat?! It's a force of nature that keeps us alive, but it also means that we'll never be considered proper citizens of a community!" Mondo felt blood trickle down his chin as he continued to bite down on his bottom lip in fear. "We're made into living targets from the moment we're born!"

 

Two of those spider-like, scaly tentacles stopped him from going any further ahead while two more did the same behind him, piercing the brick wall doing so. Mondo sunk to the floor with lost hope.

 

"It's easy for ghouls to be hated... But how easy is it for someone to get sympathy right after they die, even if they don't deserve it?" Kiyotaka continued softly, "I know you'd gain sympathy because you're still pure..."

 

Mondo looked at Kiyotaka in fear, tears ready to fall. There was no doubt about it that Kiyotaka was going to kill him until...

 

"I can't..." Mondo opened his eyes looked at the ghoul in confusion, only seeing a guilt ridden face instead of the cold hardened look he was looking at moments ago.

"... what?..."

 

Mondo got even more surprised when Kiyotaka broke down in tears and fell on to his knees.

"I can't do it... I can't kill you..."


	3. Negotiation and threats

"What?..."

"I can't do it... I can't kill you..."

 

The soft weeping almost made the gang leader forget about the ghoul in front of him being a ghoul, but it was those sharp tendrils that kept him within reality.

 

"I can't kill anything... Humans always rile me up but you were saying... Such indecent things that I almost snapped! I can't even kill you because you're the one person that actually made me feel important, what made me think that I could kill you after you were so nice to me?!" The ghoul broke down in tears as the human watched him with concern, "to think, that I almost did... I could've killed you if you weren't my friend."

 

Since Kiyotaka was in a vulnerable state at the moment, Mondo scrambled to get up on his feet and jump over the body before legging it.

 

His mind swarmed around what to do in this situation, he'd always thought schools were messing with you if you were ever in a situation that required the skills he learned from a facility such as maths, but this was a ghoul. The staff of every school always say the same fucking thing,  _be careful with who you decide to trust._

 

He needed to get away... But his heart stopped him from taking another step.  _'Fuck no, HE'S A GHOUL! He could kill me! I can't go into a lovey dovey mode right now!'_

 

He couldn't help it. Mondo looked back at the crying boy, not sure whether to feel scared or angry. This was a ghoul? Weren't they killing machines? Monsters? Monsters aren't supposed have emotions... Right? That's why he was still surprised about the sudden sobs continously escaping Kiyotaka's mouth.

 

 

 _'I should keep running... Call for help, just do something rational,'_ Mondo thought, ' _he may be a ghoul, but_ _Kiyotaka is my crush, the one person who feels like they can truly understand me. I can't leave him crying like that, that would break my heart.'_

 

Mondo hesitantly turned around, stepped closer to the boy and heard his quiet sobs repeating, '...I've killed everyone... I ruined everything...' The older boy knelt down behind him, reached out and placed a hand on Kiyotaka's shoulder, causing the latter to lift his head in his direction so they could look eye to eye.

"I-I didn't mean that I wanted you dead, I didn't even know you were a ghoul in the first place." He spoke softly, Kiyotaka's tears kept streaming down his face as he kept his lips pursed. Mondo then looked at the spider-like tentacle that penetrated the wall before touching it, "what are these called?"

"... they're called 'Kagune'..." Kiyotaka spoke, getting surprised when he felt Mondo's gentle touch.

 

Mondo felt the textures of the kagune, it felt wonderfully smooth and scaley, perfectly sharp to imaple someone. Relief washing over him as the kagune started re attracting itself back into Kiyotaka's lower back.

"It's... A pretty cool weapon..."

"... they're part of the ghoul's anatomy, you could call it a weapon but they're used for attacking, hunting and defense." Kiyotaka sighed, wiping his tears away, he stood up and held out his hand for Mondo, "I blew my cover... I can't do that... I got to inform Miss Tanaka about this."

"Y-you can't do what?..." Mondo carefully asked but only received silence.

"..."

"Is everyone at Tanaka Café... A ghoul?" Mondo asked, not sure if he should even be trusting Kiyotaka. In fact, the ghoul's scleras were still black, what did that mean? He did take the offered hand in front of him, almost blushing.

 

Kiyotaka gave the faintest smile.

"Well yes, there's no point in keeping that from you. Come on." The moral boy started walking back the way they came from.

 

Mondo felt like screaming for help but if he did so then he would die. No choice but to follow his crush. No doubt about it is that the entire walk will be nothing but awkward silence, it feels wrong... so very wrong...

 

_'I'm gonna go ahead and trust a monster... Cliché...'_

 

* * *

 

 

Byakuya wiped the tables, getting a little surprised when the bell in front of the door rang. 

"Sorry, we're currently closi-" the blonde turned around surprised to see both Kiyotaka and Mondo, what caught his attention was Kiyotaka's kakugan currently activated. "I-Ishimaru, your k- eyes are a bit red-"

"It's alright... He knows." Once Kiyotaka muttered that sentence, Byakuya scowled as he pulled out a package out of his pocket and tossed it to Kiyotaka.

"Why is he not dead?" He asked in a stern tone, making Kiyotaka flinch.

"...I couldn't..."

"I guess I have to do everything around here. I'll kill him myself." Byakuya informed as he got out some cleaning products.

"No don't!"

"He knows about you, it would only make sense to kill him just to keep it secret."

"But Byakuya, he's my friend."

"He's also human. We can't just let him live and go tell the CCG about us."

"Please Byakuya."

"Oh, so you just go and reveal your secret to him after failing to attack him. Not only that but you bring him here to where he could learn everything about us."

"You don't-"

"My final answer is n-"

"Byakuya." 

 

The stern voice came from the staff door, the three teenagers' eyes turned to see a woman in her mid forties but she looked more like she was in-between mid to late twenties. She glanced at Kiyotaka, Byakuya and Mondo all at once.

 

"Amaya." Byakuya responded after the sudden silence. The said woman turned her head back to Kiyotaka and Mondo.

"Kiyotaka, may you and your friend come with me?" She politely asked, not getting an answer as she was already walking into staff rooms. She meant business and she wasn't taking no for an answer.

 

Kiyotaka glanced at Mondo and grabbed his hand, taking him into the staff room and ignoring Byakuya's glare that was meant for Mondo.

 

He shut the door once they were all in. Mondo didn't show it but he was terrified, no doubt about it that the woman in front of him is a ghoul as well.

 

She then held out her hand.

"Hello young man, I'm Amaya Tanaka. I believe you may know my son, Gundam Tanaka?" The shake of the hand gave Amaya more information before Mondo shook his head about knowing Gundam, "oh well. What's your name?"

"Mondo Oowada... Nice to meet cha', Ma'am." He said, dropping the cussing for a moment.

"I also believe that you know of Kiyotaka being a ghoul, am I right?"

"...yes..."

"I see," Amaya turned her head to Kiyotaka, "he is your friend."

"Yes, Miss Tanaka."

"...did you try to kill him?"

"..." The silence answered Amaya's question.

"Why do you want him to live now?"

"I didn't want to kill him but he accidentally made me attack him... It was just a small episode."

"Oh, sweetheart, this makes this a lot harder for us..." Amaya brought her hand to her lips, lost in thought on what to do with the human boy in front of her, she finally came to her conclusion, "he will live, Kiyotaka, I never said anything about killing him as an answer."

"Really?" Kiyotaka looked up at the woman with hope.

"But that won't mean he'll be left to speak about us to every other human," she turned back to Mondo, "you will work at Tanaka Café..."

 

Nobody said a word, Mondo could tell she had more to say.

"...but you are going to have to be trained like a ghoul."

"Trained?" He questioned.

"You will be taught how to fight and eat like a ghoul, Oowada." The sentence made Mondo's eyes widen.

"What? Fight and... E-eat?..." Mondo didn't want to know, if this was the consequence of him knowing about ghouls then he didn't want it.

"My son will train you to fight and the rest of the others, including myself, will teach you how to eat like a ghoul and not getting caught."

"Does that mean..."

"You have to resort to cannibalism, but little by little. We will start with a small piece and it goes on from there. Other than that I will expect to see you working here tomorrow."

 

Mondo would've felt relieved if it weren't for the fact that he had to eat other people to be like a ghoul. He could honestly throw up at the mere idea.

 

Amaya opened the door and went over to Byakuya, Kiyotaka felt anxious about the reaction he was going to get from the blonde.

"Taka, I don't understand any of this." Mondo spoke as he held his head in his hand.

"This is by Miss Tanaka's decision, it's better than killing you."

 

"What?!" Byakuya's yell made the duo look out the door way.

"Byakuya, I understand why you may not like it but it may be beneficial for our kind." Amaya tried consulting the heir but it didn't seem to be having any effect.

"That human will be our downfall, are you really going to consider letting him live?" Byakuya made his point even clearer by pointing his finger at Mondo, the hate in his eyes seemed really genuine.

"One human isn't always going to be like the rest."

"But-"

"I don't want to hear another word about it, Byakuya. And I want you and Kiyotaka to inform everyone else about this."

 

Byakuya nodded but then he turned his attention to the gang leader and stomped over to him. He punched the wall right next to Mondo's head, weakening it.

 

The gang leader's eyes widened in fear and shock, this wasn't the first time that Byakuya got this angry and Mondo, Leon and Yasuhiro learned the reasons why to never piss the guy off the hard way. 

 

He remembered how Leon and Yasuhiro were acting like idiots one day and they ended up getting on Mondo's last nerve. While chasing the duo, they accidentally knocked over Byakuya, who was already in a foul mood for some reason, and broke his glasses. The blonde had the same ominous aura surrounding him right now as it was on that day.

 

"Listen Oowada," the raspy demand made a shiver crawl down Mondo's spine, "you tell anyone, especially the CCG about us... And I'll kill you..."

 

Byakuya turned his direction and walked upstairs.

 

"Don't worry about him, Oowada," Amaya reassured the teen, "Byakuya just needs some time to adapt to the new additions."

"R-right..." Mondo couldn't help but feel like there was more to Byakuya than he knew but one thing was for sure.

 

_He's gonna be an even bigger douchébag than he was before..._


	4. First Fight

As he stepped out of his dorm room and locked the door, Leon tilted his head around to spot any sign of a beautiful blonde as well as being careful with who would come out of their rooms.

 

He stood still for a moment when he felt a thud on the ground. He did need to use much of his good hearing to know where the sound was coming from. He turned around and saw Mondo quickly rushing out of his dorm, hair ruffled with bags under his eyes.

 

"Hey M, h...how ya doing?" He paused mid sentence when he took full notice of his best friend's face. The redhead went over to Mondo's side, "Jeez, ya look awful. Did you even get any sleep last night?"

"..." Mondo whacked Leon's hand away when the All-star tried reaching over to touch his forehead.

"...How'd your date go anyway?" The smaller teen pouted with annoyed eyes.

"D... Don't even start..." Mondo asked, holding his fingers over his temples.

"...so you are still alive(!) What happened?" Leon went to concerned after joking around for a moment.

 

Mondo pulled his hand away from his temple and contemplated what to say.

 

* * *

 

 

"I see, instead of a boyfriend you got a job." Leon spoke, sounding almost disappointed.

"Yeah..." Mondo nodded while averting his eyes. The truth was just at the back of his throat and it wanted to escape badly.

 

Throughout the entire day of school, Mondo remembered the names of whoever worked at Tanaka Café. Sure, he recognised them now but what scared him was that some of these people actually are really nice.  _How can a sweet pop-idol be a ghoul?_  He thought as Sayaka popped into his head, it just felt all too surreal.

 

"Hey, Oowada," the tap on his shoulder and call of his last name made Mondo turn his head to face a pink haired boy with a braid hanging by his face and he wore a jumpsuit stained with a bit of oil, he must be that Ultimate Mechanic guy Mondo heard of. He also heard about how cowardly the  guy was. Weirdly enough Mondo had never once been to the guy to fix his bike as nobody ever dared to harm it, "name's Kazuichi Souda, may you come with me please?"

"Uh...sure. Hey Leon, you don't mind?" 

"Nah, it's alright. I still got some more pick up lines to learn."

 

Kazuichi grabbed onto Mondo's wrist and starting dragging him out of the cafeteria. Mondo could see a faint mark underneath the guy's shirt but it didn't look like much.

 

 _'I'm pretty sure this guy's one of the ghouls I was told of...'_ he thought carefully in case ghouls could read minds... Or something. Hey, it was a superstitious idea that Daiya gave him when he was a kid. Sure his appearance seemed very punkish but based on what Mondo knows now, Kazuichi  _must_ be more than dangerous. Pink hair, sharp teeth... _'Man, some ghouls are weird.'_

When they were in a desolate area (double-checked on Kazuichi's view), the mechanic started interrogating the gang leader.

"Byakuya told us what happened yesterday." Kazuichi said as he went straight to the point, eyebrows furrowed and scowl not leaving his face. It was just so sudden and it left Mondo petrified right where he was standing.

"Y-yeah, I think I already got his message in my head. He kept repeating that he'll kill me if I blab this to anyone." Mondo seemed like he was being sarcastic but he was actually paying attention, a little frozen from the fact that an easily frightened kid can be a little more intimidating than others.

"And he will," the smaller teen said, not caring if what he said worried the taller, "Byakuya  _hates_ humans, I don't know why, so no doubt about it that he won't hate you."

"Why does he hate humans?"

"I'm not supposed to tell, he'd kill me. Byakuya also told me and Gundam to keep an eye on you and forgive me if I'm wrong, but trust isn't really that much of my forté." The pinkette looked down at the ground with a soft frown, Mondo quickly caught sight of it before it went away.

 

"Look, I'm just really confused about everything."

"Well, the rest of us are here to answer any question of yours. If we're not available then ask Amaya."

"...have you done this before with another human or am I the first?" This was actually one of the questions that Mondo thought about instead of sleeping last night.

"I don't really know, but it is a possibility. I started working at the café three years ago and I still need to know a lot more about both ghouls and human." Kazuichi looked up in thought; Mondo only grew more confused and suspicious.

"..." The gang leader open and closed his mouth at the thought of asking another question but stopped himself after considering that it would offend the pinkette before him.

"Yes?" The mechanic said, waiting for the question. 

"Why are you letting me li-" Before he even realised it, Kazuichi had plastered his hand over the brunette's mouth, accidentally pushing his back against the wall. The glare on the pinkette's face just grew in the rates of frightening, Mondo kept quiet until the older student pulled his hand off. "Sorry you just said that I could ask any kind of question."

"...I'm just going to forget that you asked that question. Either you go to one of us or Gundam's mother and ask," Kazuichi began to step away before coming back to the gang leader, "and don't forget it, else you're too thick to get it in your head."

"Hey-"

"Oowada, I'm suggesting you pay more attention to ghouls because it will really save your life one day. And don't forget, that I could kill you as well whenever I want to."

 

And with that sentence, Kazuichi took off. Mondo wanted to break something, what did he ever do to deserve this? Being threatened by ghouls, forced to cannibalise and not speak about the entire ordeal to anyone? That's seems to be a push closer to the breaking point. The gang leader buried his head in his hands in a loss for words.

 

"Hello Oowada-kun." A female voice politely spoke. Mondo raised his head to face Sayaka Maizono as she walked closer to him.

"Oh! M-Maizono... Hey..." He stuttered slightly, both afraid and nervous of the girl in front of him, "Y-you're a ghoul... Right?..."

"Oowada-kun, you don't have to worry about all of us," she reassured, Mondo's eyes widened a bit at her kindness, "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Oh... Sorry, I'm just... A bit-"

"Scared?"

"...yeah..."

"Everyone gets scared, Oowada-kun, especially ghouls. I'm sure if you got to know each of us better, then your relationship will be stronger."

"Is there anyone else who's a ghoul?"

 

Sayaka felt embarrassed and worried to say, "not that I know of." Both she and Mondo faced the floor, not sure on what to say next but then a small growl was heard.

 

Sheepishly, Mondo placed a hand on his empty stomach.

"I didn't eat much yesterday," he muttered with a small embarrassed blush. Smiling, Sayaka took out a Bento box out of her bag and held it out for him.

"It's supposed to be my lunch but ghouls can't really eat anything other than people..." Mondo took the pink box and opened it, he saw some really delicious Onigiri and Tsukune. 

"Wow! Did you make it yourself?"

"In fact, I did! I make the food at the café, I can teach you if you'd like." The blue haired girl offered.

"Sure." Mondo quickly accepted, feeling that it would be beneficial for his new job.

 

* * *

 

Byakuya glared out the window as lunch came as soon as class started and Celestia sat with him since she was a bit tolerable but he didn't really consider her his friend. She was just like all other humans...

 

"If you don't mind me asking but why is it that you never have solid foods with you?"  The gambler questioned. The heir mentally scowled as he couldn't lie perfectly without being caught by the Queen of Liars.

"It's just that I'm not hungry, Celestia. Besides, I'm not supposed to eat anyway." He carefully did his best as he attempted to lie.

"Nonsense," Celestia picked up some Yakitori with her chop sticks and held it close to his face. "Eat."

 

As much as the food looked delicious, Byakuya could say otherwise with its taste. He quickly opened his mouth for the offered piece to go in, almost cringing in disgust  The meat tasted like pure pig fat, its crispy layer felt like sandpaper and the sauce was nothing but expired raw eggs to him.

Celestia smiled as she watched Byakuya swallow the Yakitori. 

"Was it delicious?"

"Of course."

_Not._

***

He burst through the bathroom doors and ran to a toilet, he clutched his stomach and held a hand to his mouth as he attempted not to through up.

 

"...gh!... Keep it... In! Ugh! Fuck!..." The blonde cried as smashed a bottle of water into his mouth and drank it to cover the horrid taste of the Yakitori. It felt agonizing each time he punched his stomach repeatedly. His hunger was getting more out of hand by the minute.

 

He wanted flesh...

 

"No!... I can't... Son of a bitch!... Ragh!.." At the last punch, Byakuya broke down in tears. He could've broken the toilet since he clutched it with an iron grip. More tears, "...w-why... W-why can't I be a normal human? Why do I... Have to be a... Ghoul?..."

 

* * *

 

 

Immediately after classes were all dismissed, Mondo was taken to the café by Sayaka. She had informed him that Kiyotaka felt extremely awkward with the idea of teaching Mondo the important things to remember about Tanaka Café, especially after the whole fiasco yesterday.

 

Once they had arrived, Amaya had come in with a waiter outfit in hand. Mondo had no doubt that the outfit was his now.

 

Sayaka and Amaya stood together while they made some extra small sandwiches and pulled out some raw meat, Mondo, now wearing his new outfit, felt his gut tightening when assumptions came into his mind and he had no doubt that the meat was actually human flesh.

 

"Oowada-kun," Sayaka gently called out for the gang leader, "stand here."

"S-sure..." He felt like swearing 'fuck no' to hide how scared he actually was but knew the consequences of that.

"Now, we cooked some of this for you." Sayaka held up a piece of grilled meat between chopsticks up for him. Although he hesitated, Mondo opened his mouth and closed it, he felt the food burst it's flavour on his tongue, it tasted delicious.

"Mmm..."

"I didn't think you would appreciate it if we told you what it was," Amaya spoke up, making the gang leader swallow in shock.

"...was that...?"

"It was only a small amount of human flesh."

"Now please don't act like one of those characters in movies that likes something when they taste it but then they throw it up because they found out it's something disgusting." Sayaka demanded and Mondo nodded.

 

He felt uncomfortable, he just ate a piece of human meat... And he liked it... 

 

"It's alright to feel slightly discomforted, Mondo. But don't forget that ghouls can't eat anything else other than human meat because our taste buds are very unique from humans." Amaya informed after the sudden silence, "but as we came prone to knowledge, our species found that coffee could satisfy our hunger, not as much as humans but enough to stay safe."

"... alright then..." 

"Now go and deliver these plates to the customers, you've been doing such a great job." Amaya complimented, making Mondo blush before he thanked her. Both she and Sayaka gave each other glances that looked so happy but they were really saying that their new employee had shortened his lifespan.

 

Mondo picked up the tray with sandwiches and walked out into the café to serve the last customers they have for today, of course he didn't see Leon since he left earlier but he didn't see Kiyotaka at the café either.

 

 _Probably a day off for him,_ the gang leader thought. His eyes then trailed off to Byakuya working at the counter as well keeping a close eye on him, it felt creepy.

 

The blonde then lifted his arm closer to his face, holding a sandwich. Mondo's eyes slightly widened, there was no way Byakuya could eat that, he's a ghoul...

 

...but he ate it... That's not possible, ghouls find human food revolting.

 

"Why don't you take a picture?" Byakuya snapped once he saw Mondo looking at him. The gang leader jumped slightly.

"Uhh... Sorry?" 

"Just collect the empty dishes and get out of my sight." Still a douchébag, nothing has changed.

"Sure..." He replied but muttering ever so silently under his breath "dickwad..."

"Also, Miss Tanaka told me that you need to know where we get our recorces from. So she wants you to go with Gundam to get it and then after that, you'll be training with him," Byakuya informed as Mondo nodded, he didn't feel as confident as he always is, "that's all the information I know, when your shift is over, go outside the staff exit and wait there." 

 

Entirely confused, Mondo simply gave a small nod and proceeded to serve the few customers that were in the café. 

 

After a while, Mondo was out of his attire and sitting on the steps of the exit. When he thought back to earlier, Mondo felt bothered by the fact that he saw the blonde eating normal food. Is that even possible?

 

"Mere mortal, so the rumours are indeed true," Mondo's eyes trailed forward to see a man who looked familiar, now he could remember; it was the upperclassmen from Class 77, the Ultimate Breeder, Gundam Tanaka, "we have an unfortunate human on our side."

"You must be Gundam." Mondo said, a bit surprised that this guy was Amaya's son. How do you get a weird, occultist breeder from a kind and gentle woman? It's not like she raised him with animals.

"Indeed, if you remain foolish in the presence of a ghoul, then you will perish. Come now!" He demanded while walking off to a car on the other side of the road. Mondo got up and followed him, pretty nervous about this guy being a ghoul as well.

 

The drive was silent and awkward, Mondo occasionally glanced at Gundam while the breeder kept his eyes on the road. The destination was unexpected, they had arrived at one of the roads besides the mountains in Japan.

 

Mondo leaned out and placed his fingers on the rusty metal to see what was over the edge and felt more anxiety creeping up his spine when he couldn't see the ground.

"Do not lean on that, mortal!" Gundam alerted, making Mondo stand straight but accidentally hit his hand against the metal. The gang leader immediately clutched his aching hand to his chest.

"Fuck! Oww!" He may have said a lot more cuss words if it wasn't for a loud SLAM at the bottom of the mountain, he looked over and gulped down his fear, "pretty high..."

"Foolish human! I don't want to be pestered for letting a human we're supposed to keep watch on die the first time I have him." 

"Dude, sorry... God..."

 

Gundam yanked on some rope he had tied to a nearby tree and passed it to Mondo.

"Wear it around your waist firmly, then slowly descend yourself down."

 

Mondo hesitantly wrapped the equipment around his waist, double checking that it was tight and went over the metal. He started jumping down bit by bit, he was getting the hang of it until he lost his footing and fell, scraping his leg through his trousers and tearing a bit of skin off.

 

Gundam then jumped from the top all the way to the bottom, ignoring the injured gang leader and making his way to a body...

 

"Hey, do you mind helping-" Mondo caught sight of the body and would've thrown up at how destroyed it looked.

"These humans have given up their lives for no known reason and we collect their body to feast on it's flesh." Gundam informed as if it were an incantation, "remember that not every ghoul kills for food, they either scavenge or steal from another ghoul's kill."

 

Mondo couldn't help but feel squeamish as Gundam started picking off the meat and placing it in plastic containers.

 

* * *

 

After delivering the meat to Tanaka Café, Gundam and Mondo went off the a deserted construction field. The gang leader noticed that Gundam started removing his jacket and scarf.

"Remember that this is training, my mother informed me to go slowly with strength but until I think you are ready, you will start with me pretending to be a simple human who has excelled beyond strength. You, human, seem like you have a quite strong physique."

 

Mondo didn't know whether to take that as an insult, a compliment or even a threat, he just remained confused until Gundam charged directly at him. The brunette quickly bounced out of the way before the ghoul could hit him.

 

Gundam then attempted to punch Mondo, surprised when the human managed to deflect all of them. Must've been beneficial for him to be a gang leader.

"Impressive skills, mortal, now let's see if you can to the same for a ghoul with the decrease of their strength." This time Gundam went fast and punched Mondo in the side.

"Oof!" After collapsing on the floor Mondo clutched his left hip in pain, "oww..."

"Forget what I said about you having 'impressive' skills. We will continue training in this method until you surpass me." 

 

* * *

 

It was only two days but Mondo could still feel his body aching as he walked through the halls, Gundam's session really took a toll on him as much as the fact that he ate human and was still doing so to this day.

 

While keeping his head down, Mondo repeatedly glanced at multiple people in the school.  _Just how many ghouls are there?_ He thought, still having that sense of doubt that no one else is a ghoul.

 

"Mondo!" Leon cried out his best friend's name in a desperate tone.

"Yeah..." Mondo blandly spoke, he was in no mood to do another favour Leon has for him, along with dealing with the pain in his side he got from his session with Gundam.

"Look, me and Hiro were just messing around the other day and then he got high and told me that he borrowed some money from the Kuzuryuu Clan and he still hasn't got what he needs so now I gotta help him pay for it and I really need your help." The all-star spoke way too quickly for anyone to understand but Mondo heard it clearly.

"He borrowed money from the yakuzas?! H-how the fuck did he manage to do that?!"

"I don't know, blame Hiro. The point is I'm gonna have to help him give them back the money and he stills owes them."

"Don't tell me..."

"He blamed it on me."

"Fuck..."

"I think we need more time than that."

"No shit, Sherlock. You're just going to have to inform them that you need more time."

"How?!"

"Talk to them." Mondo placed a hand on Leon's shoulder and started dragging him as they walked to where Class 77 would be.

 

Before they knew it, a silver haired girl stood before them.

"Are you looking for someone?" She asked blandly, no emotion whatsoever.

"Uh yeah, we're looking for Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu... We need to talk to him about the money this guy owes him..." Mondo stuttered slightly as he quickly thought about what to say.

"I don't owe anyone a thing! Hiro blamed me for shit!" Leon retorted.

"You're looking for him? I could take you to see him right now because he's currently not in class." Peko said politely, Mondo felt a bit of suspicion as to how easily she was helping them but he didn't really think much of it.

"Great! Where is he?" Leon asked.

"Somewhere in his dorms, let me take you to them." Leon started following Peko like a dog and Mondo did so a couple of seconds later, this girl seemed suspicious.

 

While walking, Mondo noticed that the Peko was going the long way to go to the dorms. When he asked why, she replied with, "Fuyuhiko may currently be busy, I believe if we take this way then he'll be finished with what he's supposed to do."

 

The gang leader started getting slightly anxious when Peko lead them to an alleyway. A dingy looking alleyway.

"P-Peko... This place doesn't lead to the dormitories..." Mondo mentioned while inspecting the area, obviously speaking from experience, neither boys expected the swordswoman to brutaly kick Leon and knocking him out at the sudden assault and pushing him straight to the wall on the other direction.

"LEON!" Mondo screamed, he looked at Peko in horror as her scleras turned black and her eyes stayed red, like Kiyotaka's, "...y-you're a ghoul..."

 

Peko jumped to give another attack aimed at Mondo but the gang leader was able to dodge thanks to his quick reflexes. One more attempt left Peko frustrated with her prey and she resorted to an inelegant punch that held all of her brute strength that whacked the gang leader to the floor.

 

Mondo felt his vision blur for a moment until he focused once more and he pushed himself back to his feet at the sight of another one of Peko's attacks.

 

"You're right about me being a ghoul... But now I can't let you live." She muttered as her blue kagune sprouted out of her lower back near her skirt like two tails, one that coiled around her long legs. As Mondo was distracted by the beautiful beaming colours of the kagune, Peko used her weapon to slash at the gang leader, succeeding as she cut his cheekbone and lower eyelid. As he groaned in pain and pulled his hand to his eye, she then grabbed Mondo's ankle with the other tendril as he was too late to react to the sudden action and started to swing him around. 

 

She didn't hesitate to slam him on the floor, Peko then discarded her attention on Mondo and focused it on Leon. The silver haired girl slowly walked over to him, ready to bite into her meal.

 

She should've checked if Mondo was still alive or not, the gang leader weakly lifted his head and his eyes caught sight of Peko's bamboo sword on the floor. He reached for it, hoping that it would be possible to save Leon.

 

As he unsheathed it, he saw that the sword had a strange colour to it... Like one of a kagune's... Looking back at Peko and the sword, Mondo quickly made his decision.

 

The gang leader pushed himself off the ground and gripped on the handle of sword as he started running towards the upperclassmen.

 

"AARGGHHH!" He yelled as he penetrated Peko's sword through her back and out her chest. She remained motionless after that, she didn't react quick enough.

"...h-how... How did you?..." Peko coughed up blood as Mondo tried twirling the sword around her insides. "...y-young master..."

 

Mondo quickly pulled out the weapon and the girl fell to the floor.

 

He looked at Leon and tried getting closer to him, his eyesight got darker as his head was spinning faster and faster, he didn't register how his body was now flat on the floor until he passed out.


	5. Warnings

Muffled voices were all he could hear as Mondo's eyes started to open

 

"...he was lucky enough to survive..." The confident echo of Gundam's voice.

"... he's waking up!..." Another voice belonging to Kazuichi.

"...Mondo!..." The voice he always wants to hear all time, more and more: Kiyotaka.

 

As Mondo started sitting up, Kiyotaka watched him with worry with small tears in his eyes.

"Mondo, how do you feel?..." He hesitantly asked.

"My liver feels like it's punching my rib cage every fucking second... And it kinda hurts to breathe... Besides that, meh..." Mondo responded before realising what happened earlier. "Leon! Shit! I need to go- Argh!"

"Careful Mondo. You're still recovering," Kazuichi warned while gently pushing the human back onto the couch, "Leon is alright, he's in the next room with Amaya and Byakuya."

"...h-how long has it been?.."

"Only a few hours," the mechanic informed as Gundam brought some pain killers to the gang leader, "me, Taka, Byakuya were looking for you and when we split up, Byakuya was the first one who found you."

"I actually thought you were dead..." Kiyotaka muttered as he rubbed his eyes.

"I ain't no medic but I'm pretty sure that you're gonna have a problem with that eye." Kazuichi informed, looking through a drawer to find a certain object.

"Huh?... W-what do ya mean?"

 

Kazuichi went straight to the point as he held up a mirror and Mondo saw his right eye. It looked damaged beyond repair (in his opinion), the lower eyelid was torn halfway and his scleras were slightly pink from the disinfectant.

 

"...." Mondo opened his mouth as if to say something but nothing came out and he just looked like a blundering idiot.

"... you're going to need to wear an eye patch to cover it up..." Kiyotaka looked away, feeling even more guilty than ever.

 

"Kazuichi," Gundam beckoned over the pinkette, "let's leave the duo in privacy."

 

He shut the door and both Mondo and Kiyotaka were left in awkward silence.

"Mondo, I'm sorry! I should have been there with you!" The moral boy sobbed.

"Taka, calm down... Neither of us knew that something like that would happen so it isn't anyone's fault." 

"But Mondo, I should have at least protected you! B-but instead, I stayed away from you because i was afraid your opinion of me would change but that almost got you killed! If I were there, I would've... You'r incredibly lucky that she had a quinque with her..."

 

"What's a quinque?..." Mondo asked, the name rolling off the tongue in confusion.

"...you know the CCG?..." Kiyotaka managed to speak clearly while Mondo gave a nod, "...they carry these special weapons they call 'quinques', used specifically to kill a ghoul."

"So... That's why it worked..." 

"I know Peko works for the Kuzuryuu Clan so they must have believed that she was a human."

"Right... When can I go back to my gang? I only want to have a day with them." Mondo complained, Kiyotaka gave a small smile.

"Well, Amaya said once you feel better and can move your body, you can go see them."

"Yes!"

"Just don't move too much and don't use your motorcycle for a while."

"No!"

"It's better safe than sorry."

 

Mondo could just smile forever at Kiyotaka's determination and kindness, that's what made him gain a crush on the boy. 

 

Kiyotaka caressed Mondo's hand while gazing into each other's eyes, running a thumb over the back of the hand occasionally.

 

"Are you two done flirting?" Byakuya called out, his arms crossed in their usual stance.

"What? Oh no! That's not what we were-" 

"Please, it's obvious. Now if you don't mind, Kiyotaka, you have to be at the counter today."

"And what about you?"

"It's only just to clean up the tables and most of them are clean."

 

Kiyotaka nodded and gave Mondo a glance that read 'I'll be back soon'. He got up and walked out the room.

 

Mondo kept looking at Byakuya.  _This prick saved me and Leon?_ he thought, it felt weird but he had to say something.

 

"Uh... Thanks..." He stuttered, Byakuya turned back to look at him.

"For what?" His poker face remained unfazed though on the inside, he felt more confused than ever.

"For saving us back there..."

"That was nothing. I only saved you because I know how much you mean to Kiyotaka, I couldn't believe it myself either. Anyway, since the recent attacks in the 22nd ward, the doves have been out more often than not."

"Doves?"

"Another name for Ghoul Investigators. When I found you and Leon, Peko wasn't there at all but her scent remained."

"She's still alive?!" 

"You don't know how to use a quinque so you may have just wounded her. Just don't think much of it and if you see any shady people carrying some suitcases, stay out of their way. What they carry inside those cases always ends up either injuring or killing a ghoul."

 

 _'Everything about ghouls... I guess I was wrong about them...'_ Mondo thought as he took his time getting up from the couch.

 

* * *

 

A Ghoul Investigator analysed the crime scene, an obvious attack from a ghoul. The investigator picked up a small torn piece of lingerie.

"...Aphrodite ghoul..." he said when he felt the texture of the material, "...she's been here, Mr Tsubasa."

"And we didn't even get to have a small 'chat' with her," the older man muttered in disappointment.

"Based on the appearance of blood and flies, the attack wasn't recent." Kyoko Kirigiri informed her two partners, she may be young but she is one of the best Ghoul Investigators in the CCG.

"What am I supposed to tell these men now? That an SS rated ghoul had made her kill and the entire gathering was a waste of time?" The black haired adult asked as Tsubasa glanced at his new partner with an impressed smirk.

"No, you're still learning. I had the same expectations as you when I was your age but my partner taught me all the things I know today."

"They call you mad, sir."

"I don't let that bother me because when you're an investigator, you're bound to go a bit nuts up there. Now, we know a thing or two about you too, son. For example, I know you used to be the leader of the Crazy Diamonds."

 

Daiya felt a bit nervous, during his training, he was told about Kijo Tsubasa and how he went crazy after finding out that one of the women he used to breed another heir was a ghoul and he was told about Kyoko and when she enrolled in Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Detective.

 

"I know your younger brother, Mondo, he's in my class. Speaking of my class, there may be a possibility that there are some ghouls hiding as humans, along with some other students in different classes."

"Well, do you have any leads?"

"Not yet, if they haven't been detected this long in a boarding school, then it means they're clever. I'm telling you, Daiya, to keep an eye on your brother, the chance of at least one of his friends being a ghoul is very likey."

"Yes, Miss Kirigiri."

 

* * *

 

When Mondo went downstairs with an eyepatch covering his right eye, he was surprised to see Kiyotaka, Byakuya, Chihiro and Leon talking to each other.

"Hey, Mondo! What up?" The redhead called out while Chihiro smiled in delight, relieved to know that their best friends were alright.

"Oowada-kun, I'm glad to know you're alright. W-what happened to your eye?" The androgynous programmer asked, worry immeadiatly coming back to them. Neither Mondo or Chihiro addressed the glance of jealousy Kiyotaka gave.

"This was from the accident from what I can tell." The gang leader answered, not sure on what to say without blowing anyone's cover.

"To be honest, I don't remember what happened since it happened so suddenly."

"Wait, you sure you don't kno- Oww!" Mondo clutched the tabe to prevent himself from grabbing his leg after it got kicked by Byakuya.

"I don't think he's fully recovered yet," Byakuya smiled innocently, convincing everyone but Mondo.

"You know something, Togami, you seem really pretty when you're nice." Leon complimented, making the blonde blush.

"Excuse me?" The blonde asked as the light from the windows reflected onto his glasses and hid his eyes.

"W-well... I just mean... Uhh..." The redhead stuttered while looking in every other direction. Mondo and Kiyotaka looked at eachother, knowing exactly what was up with their classmate. Too bad Byakuya was kind of oblivious to it.

"Kuwata-kun, I need to take to you home." Chihiro informed while gently yanking on the All-Star's jacket.

"Jeez, fine, I'm coming. I'll see you guys later, also Mondo, you should keep your hair down more often. It looks better like that."

"Bye." Both Mondo, Kiyotaka and Byakuya said at the same time as Leon and Chihiro left, waving back at the others. Mondo then looked at his hair, he hadn't even registered that it came out of it's usual position.

 

As Mondo ran a hand through his bangs, Byakuya spoke up.

"If they found out, you know what will happen, right Oowada?" He questioned quite coldly as he spat out Mondo's last name as if it were normal food.

"I know, Togami, you don't have to keep repeating it to me 24/7." Mondo did the same with Byakuya's last name, he picked up some empty cups to help Kiyotaka.

"I will kill them if they start catching onto us." Mondo flinched at the sentence, accidentally dropping a cup.

"You're not serious." He said as the cup shattered.

"I am. Go ahead and tell them if you want, I've been wanting to kill you since the moment you found out."

 

The door opened again and everyone turned their eyes on a wet to the bone Sayaka holding some bags of food.

"Sayaka! You're drenched," Byakuya said as he ran over to her, "Oowada, get some towels. Now!"

"The rain was sudden and I got caught up in it. I also found another thing while I went shopping," She said with an embarrassed smile, she took a towel that Mondo held out for her, "I think he might belong to you, Byakuya."

"'He'?" Mondo addressed the flaw in Sayaka's sentence.

"Wait, do you mean..." Kiyotaka trailed off when the pop idol nodded.

"Give me one of those towels, Oowada." Byakuya demanded while snatching the item he wanted.

 

Much to Mondo's surprise, a redheaded kid ran in with his arms spread out like an airplane, making a 'ZOOOOOOOOMMMM' noise and running around for a moment before getting caught in Byakuya's arms. He had such cute baby blue eyes and his firey red hair rivaled that of Leon's.

"Masaru, what are you doing here?" Byakuya asked playfully while rubbing the towel on the child's head to dry him.

"I can't wait anymore for you to come back home, Byakuya. I wanna go to work with you and have fun!" Masaru gave his answer by making a superhero pose, Byakuya laughed at the child's creativity.

"Alright then, but first, we're getting you dry, young man. " Byakuya picked up the child and opened the staff door and disappeared upstairs.

 

"Was that really Togami? Because he acted  _waaaaay_ outta character." Mondo alerted, suspecting if Hagakure was right about his theories on aliens existing.

"That was Masaru Daimon, he's been in Byakuya's care ever since his father died." Sayaka gave the information as she placed the groceries on the counter and started to dry herself off with the towels..

"Everybody likes him but he seems to like Byakuya more than the rest." Kiyotaka said to finish Sayaka's sentence.

"Is he also a ghoul?" Mondo asked, mentally slapping himself for being an idiot. ' _If babies come from sex, then what's to stop ghoul babies from doing the same?'_

"Yes Kyoudai, I suggest you give him a cup of coffee as a peace offering, so he'll know you're friendly."

 

Kiyotaka quickly made a fresh batch of coffee while Mondo took the time to put his hair in a ponytail, he slowly poured it into a cup and placed it on a tray before handing it to Mondo. The gang leader walked up the stairs, being careful not to spill the beverage. When he reached the door to the living room upstairs, a thought ran through his mind.

 

 _'This ghoul is a kid, what harm can he do?'_  Mondo opened the door and was ready to introduce himself to Masaru, only to have his eyes widen in shock and fear.

 

He saw a dry Masaru, with his kakugan activated, eating from a plate of human flesh. Mondo stood there, completely frozen, while Masaru wiped his bloodied mouth with a napkin.

 

"...I... I'm sorry!" Mondo cried out before walking back out and shutting the door. He took a breather and saw that he dropped the tray with the coffee.

 

_'That was a kid... A little kid... He's not some monster like a savage ghoul... Is he?'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive me if I made Byakuya act out of character too much, this is just the way my fanfic is rolling. And you'll find out more about why I made him Masaru's gaurdian in the next chapter.(possibly)
> 
> And I also made a few changes to Byakuya's family but I don't want to give you that much detail because it would be a spoiler. (Sorry.)


	6. A Sudden Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Mondo finally gets to know Masaru, he learns more about the other ghouls who are connected to Tanaka Café but what's the ordeal about getting a mask? 
> 
> And why does it seem like Byakuya and Kazuichi wish death on someone?

"You saw him eating?" Sayaka asked, almost spilling some coffee.

"It was an accident, I didn't mean it." Mondo admitted with guilt, he was kind of relieved that Byakuya wasn't in the same room as Masaru.

"Don't worry, Oowada-kun. It's happened already, all you can do now is apologise and give him a gift," Sayaka quickly reassured the gang leader, she then walked over to the bags and pulled out of soccer ball plushie with a face on it. "Just so you don't make another mistake, most ghouls don't like being seen eating, especially girls and children."

"Got it." Mondo nodded as he was given the toy, he placed it under his arm and Sayaka made her way to place the coffee and a couple napkins on the tray before handing it to Mondo.

"Masaru has an admiration for sports so I believe if you give this to him, it will make him feel less scared."

 

Mondo collected all that information in his head as he went up the stairs, not wanting to forget it in case he crosses path with a ghoul much more savage. He did feel anxious about meeting up with the redheaded child once again but he didn't want any kind of kid threatened of him. The gang leader coud feel more guilt clawing at his stomach when he saw the discarded tray with the traces of blood on the plate in front of the door.

 

As he took a deep breath, Mondo opened the door and saw Masaru sitting on the couch, holding a manga in his hands.

"H-hey kid..." He awkwardly spoke up to strike up a conversation, "I'm sorry 'bout earlier, I didn't mean it."

"...sure, it's okay..." Masaru just turned his head to avoid looking at the gang leader.

"...I brought you something," Mondo held up the soccer plushie, he smiled when he saw Masaru's eyes beam up with delight.

"Is that a soccer teddy from the latest edition?" The question made Mondo look at the tags, getting impressed when he saw that the kid was right.

"Yeah, it is."

"I've been looking for one these so it can complete my collection." 

 

Masaru cheered as he was given the plushie, jumping around before running over to a shelf but his height prevented him from reaching the top shelf, probably because he's only 10 years old and 4 ft 1. He could just struggle and jump up and down but had no avail.

"What are you doing?" Mondo asked, walking behind Masaru.

"Trying... To... Get... This teddy... on the top... shelf!..." Masaru answered, taking a breath every time he jumped. Mondo took the plushie and placed it on top of the shelf, "Thanks mister! Now, help me to place a whole set of traps."

 

The preteen boy went over to a cuboard and opened to grab some items, giving Mondo no choice but to join him.

 

* * *

 

 

Byakuya walked over to the living room door with Amaya, discussing about a situation.

"Amaya, do I have to take him? And can't Kiyotaka do it instead? I have to look after Masaru." He complained, Byakuya wasn't in the mood to take care of a gang leader, especially Mondo Oowada.

"You can take Taka with you, I'm only saying that it'd be better for him to get a mask now before a dove may identify him." Amaya informed, she wasn't taking anyone else's bullshit for the day.

"Alright, I'll will take him to Ibuki," The blonde opened the door to the living room, not expecting a bucket of water to fall on his head, "Kyaa!"

 

"Hahahahaha! We got 'im, Eyepatch!" Masaru cheered inside a pillow fort, giving a high-five to Mondo. Mondo then regretted it instantly when he saw who they had just pranked.

"...I'm wondering who did this." Byakuya muttered, his sentence echoing inside the bucket over his head. Masaru pointed at Mondo and Byakuya lifted the bucket off, "...Amaya, may I kill him instead?"

"Just take him to Ibuki now." Amaya answered.

"Ugh... Masaru, I'll be out for a while and I'm taking your new friend with me. I want you to listen to Amaya and Gundam and don't open the door for You-Know-Who."

"You mean-"

"No, not Voldemort. Oowada, get ready. I need to change my shirt."

 

Mondo quickly went downstairs, a few minutes later, he met up with Kiyotaka and Byakuya.

"Hi Kyoudai, do you feel better?" Kiyotaka asked as he put on a jacket.

"Yeah, much more." Mondo answered, he heard a small scoff from Byakuya.

"Well, it's still raining, I see no choice but to take umbrellas." Byakuya grabbed the said item from umbrella stand and opened it the same time he opened the door, "let's go, Ibuki is in the 19th ward." 

"Who exactly is Ibuki?" Mondo asked while closing his leather jacket to keep warm.

 

"Oh, Ibuki is the most dangerous of ghouls despite her position at Hope's Peak as the Ultimate Musician in Class 77." Byakuya informed.

"She managed to kill 100 doves in one go with her kagune." Kiyotaka spoke with intimidation in his voice.

"She managed to kill an infamous Prime Minister."

"Not only that, but she created one of the most feared group of ghouls in all of Japan."

"Just don't get on her bad side and you won't wind up dead."

 

Mondo felt his face pale at each sentence, that or it was the raw human meat affecting him. The rest of the walk was silent with the exceptions of small coughs.

 

Kiyotaka and Byakuya then turned left into a building that looked scratched up with crumbled bricks and graffiti, the blonde quickly turned the sign from 'open' to 'closed'.

"Ibuki! Where are you?" Byakuya called out in a room full of masks.

"Ibuki-chan!" Kiyotaka did the same as the blonde, "don't tell me she's asleep on the job."

"Or worse, playing her music."

 

While the two ghouls looked around the room, Mondo focused his attention on the masks and went ahead to lift a sheet off what seemed to be a small head mannequin. When he raised it, his eyes locked with pink eyes.

 

"Boo."

"AHH!" Mondo reacted quickly and fell straight onto his ass, Kiyotaka turned around and saw his best friend's distressed state.

"Kyoudai!" The red eyed boy cried out as he ran over to Mondo and checked if he was alright.

"Oops..." With a smirk, the girl got out of her position on her seat.

"There you are, Ibuki." Byakuya said while walking over to her, "you're always pranking people."

"Well, Ibuki is Ibuki! Always a popular musician and simple jokester!" Ibuki admitted as Mondo looked at her with confusion in his eyes.

"...you're...Ibuki?..." He asked hesitantly as he got off the floor,

"Well yeah!"

 

Mondo kept looking up and down at Ibuki's features, she had multicoloured hair with black, white, blue and pink streaks, some of the whites pulled into horns on top of her head, she had peircings below her lip and pink and blue stockings with holes in them; this girl is a punk, more than Kazuichi. She's nothing like how Mondo imagined her to be.

 

"Byakuya and Taka told you about me, did they?" She asked with a cute smile.

"yeah..." Mondo answered, still confused as shit.

"Oh, so that's why you're so scared."

"Wha...?" A snicker escaped from Kiyotaka and Byakuya.

"I can't believe you actually fell for it." Byakuya inclined with his usual smirk.

"Ibuki always tells us to give newcomers a false image of her so they can be afraid to meet her," Kiyotaka said while trying to muffle his laughter.

"You guys were in on it? And Taka, you told me you never tell lies!" Mondo informed, feeling a bit embarrassed about screaming like a girl.

"Well I lied."

"Everyone always falls for it." Ibuki joined in with the jittering duo before realising who Mondo is, "WHOA! You're the human who's becoming a ghoul!"

"You could say that..."

"Wow! So you'll be the one getting the mask! Sit here!"

 

Ibuki harshly grabbed Mondo's wrist and forced him down on her seat, Byakuya and Kiyotaka walked away because they knew things were going to get crazy. The musician girl pulled out a measuring tape and a drawing pad, making Mondo worry about what she was going to do.

 

She then looked at Mondo's face in a creepy way, closing one eye and positioning her thumb in different angles in front of his face.

 "So are you allergic to anything?" Ibuki questioned, not caring if she was getting up in his buisiness.

"Only egg and wheat-" The gang leader only got interrupted.

"Would you prefer leather, silk or velcro? Wait, why is Ibuki asking that? You're wearing a leather jacket!" She wrapped the measuring tape over his forehead.

"Well, actually I wouldn't mind-"

"Tell me, Mondo-chan, do you have a girlfriend of sorts?"

"What?" Mondo got flustered at that moment, face turning red as the iris in an activated kakugan.

"Oh, I get it, you don't swing that way." That was even worse.

"I-I..."

"Who's the lucky boy?"

"I-I'm not going out with anyone!"

"Any sort of crush?"

"...uuuhhhh..."

"Your sights are set on someone and I wanna know who?- That's a great title for a song!" Ibuki smiled with a spotlight beaming on her face, "anyway, do you like a boy from Hope's Peak?"

"N-no!" 

"Is it a ghoul boy you know?"

"Stop interrogating me!" Embarrassedly, Mondo covered his blushing face with his hands while Ibuki added another addition to her idea of a mask before walking away.

 

She did look back to see Mondo looking through his fingers directly at Kiyotaka, the blush not leaving at all. Ibuki smiled but decided not to torment the gang leader anymore as he had suffered enough already. Analysing the sketches she drew, she made decision on one idea.

"I'm confused, Ibuki," Mondo started once the embarrassment faded, "I thought ghouls were nothing like humans but now that I've met them, it's shown me that I was wrong."

"Well, most humans don't tend to look past our scary nature and Ibuki knows that other ghouls are close with humans when hiding their identity, like you and Taka-chan!"

"And what about the people who know about ghouls? The ones who are friends with them?"

"I don't know. All Ibuki knows that they either died or went to the CCG."

 

Mondo felt disgusted about what he used to think about ghouls, they were just like normal people who can't eat any proper food. A lot of his opinions have now changed when he looked at Kiyotaka, Amaya, Sayaka and Masaru, the ones who remained nice to him despite knowing that he's a human.

 

"But there is a ghoul who fits with both titles, but you can meet me for advice too- Now that's a good title!"

"Ibuki," Kiyotaka tapped on the girl's shoulder, "Byakuya told me you need to give me a mask."

"Ibuki knew this day would come! Follow me!" 

 

She grabbed the Moral Compass's wrist and dragged him into another room, leaving Mondo with Byakuya. 

 

The gang leader turned his head to look at the affluent proginy, who was holding a mask with a melancholic expression. The blonde felt eyes on him before locking blue eyes with lavender, he placed the mask to one side.

 

"Yes?" He asked with crossed arms, aware that the human wanted to ask some questions.

"...why does Ibuki refer to herself by her name? Instead of using 'I' or 'me'?" Mondo said as he looked back at where Ibuki dragged Kiyotaka to.

"It's a habit of hers," Byakuya began, "she was a very shy girl when I first met her but she had a major change as we grew up. You would think that Sayaka would look up to her considering she's a year younger than her and they both love music but it's actually the opposite. Ibuki always looked up to Sayaka, they're close like sisters." Mondo noticed another emotion on Byakuya's face, one he's never seen on someone so pompous, admiration.

"Is Ibuki the boss here?"

"Please. If she was, then her employees would be payed with her music."

"I remember listening to some of her songs. I liked "From Me to You Too"-"

"How are you still alive?" Byakuya asked with a WTF look on his face.

"...was she in band before?" Byakuya's face immediately turned sour, his eyes darting over to the other room and seeing Ibuki's face babbling about Taka's mask. Good thing she didn't hear what Mondo asked. The blonde walked closer to the brunette and leant so their eyes could meet.

"She was. It's a sensitive topic for her because she... left her band to do her own music. The ghouls at Tanaka Café liked a bit of it but most humans absolutely hated it. Ibuki was heartbroken at that fact... But she wasn't like that for long, Hope's Peak invited her and she had received her title as Ultimate Musician, I can still remember the look of joy on her face when she got that acceptance letter."

"So you don't hate her music?"

"No, it's just too loud."

"...what does she mean about-"

 

Before the question could be asked, Taka had come out with a brown paper that held his new mask.

"Thank you, Ibuki-chan. We have to leave now, but I hope kyoudia's mask is able to hide his identity well." He spoke

"You insult Ibuki. Of course the mask will hide his face."

"It's good to know you're well, Buki." Byakuya informed the female ghoul.

"Thanks Byaku-chan, but don't worry! Mondo-chan's mask will be per-fecto-Mondo soon!"

"Your jokes aren't funny Ibuki." Byakuya informed. 

 

* * *

 

Mondo was dropped off at his gang territory but there was really nothing else to do so the whole group made their way back home. He did get a few questions on the eyepatch but they stopped as fast as the moment they started.

 

 _'There's a ghoul who fits with both titles? What does that mean?"_ Mondo thought, his mind could decipher the sentence Ibuki said.

 

To his relief, Daiya wasn't home yet. He turned on his phone and checked to see if he got any texts.

 

_From Leon:_ _At 7:24_

_Hey man, me and Fujisaki have nothing to do tomorrow, wanna go hang?_

 

_From_ _Daiya:  At 8:01_

_Be home around 9, I'll be late arriving back home so I left u some beef stew. Ur fav._

 

After reading Daiya's text, Mondo looked at the time on his phone, not caring if he arrived at 10:06 because the thug life literally chose him.

 

He walked over to the fridge and opened it, of course he liked beef stew... But now, it didn't seem appealing to him anymore. Mondo then instinctively pulled out one of those packages of human meat out of his pocket and bit a huge chunk from it. The flavour ran down his throat with a taste of rare cooked steak and a small droplet of blood ran down his chin. It only took a moment for the gang leader to realise what he was chewing on.

 

Once he swallowed the piece, he pulled out the beef stew and placed it on the table. He used a spoon to put the homemade meal in his mouth and to his shock, Mondo spat it out in disgust.

 

"...what?..." He whispered before opening the fridge once again and trying a slightly shriveled apple but instead of the sweetness that always came from an apple, it came as a sour juice. He spat that out too, he grabbed the cartons of milk and juice. He could've thrown up at the taste. He sat down on a chair to catch his breath at the realisation that he didn't have anymore food.

 

Looking at the package that layed on the counter, Mondo grabbed and shoved it into his mouth, taking large bites each time. He couldn't eat anything else...

 

* * *

 

The next day, the gang leader went to the café early as it was a Saturday. He walked into the building and went through the staff door, Mondo placed his jacket on the coat hanger and got into his new attire.

 

"Hello Oowada," Mondo looked back to see Amaya and Gundam, "nice to see you up early."

"Hey Amaya, Gundam. How's everyone else doing?" Mondo asked, he can't swear in front of women.

"They're doing just fine, Masaru has been wanting to get to know you better." She gently replied.

"The young child is waiting in the café with The Rich One and The Moral One." Gundam informed with his usual dark tone.

"You can go and meet them, everyone else will arrive soon." Amaya said before walking off into the kitchen.

 

Mondo lost his opportunity to ask her about what happened to him last night so he went back into the café. He glanced at the people who were there, Byakuya, Kazuichi, Masaru and Kiyotaka.

 

He did feel his heart pounding at the sight of the Moral Compass as usual but the tug on his clothes made him snap out of his trance and look at Masaru.

"I was wondering, what kind of ghoul are you?" 

"Well kid, I'm not actually a ghoul. I'm a human."

"Then why aren't you dead?" Okay, that was dark.

 

"Tanaka Café is keeping him alive, Masaru," Kiyotaka quickly replied to keep Mondo from embarrassment, "he accidentally found out about what we are and he's working with us and eating humans to keep it a secret."

"What is it like to eat things like cake?" Masaru innocently asked.

"That's enough questions, Masaru." Byakuya interrupted the group by opening the door to the staff rooms.

"Ohhh." The child complained.

"Just go and wait upstairs for me, there's a soccer game on the TV."

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..." Masaru's cheers faded as he reached the top of the stairs and Byakuya shut the door.

"Masaru never fails to make me die of adorableness." Kazuichi smiled as he drank his coffee.

"I know." Byakuya answered, Mondo wondered if Byakuya truly cared for anyone else in Tanaka Café.

 

The bell on the door then rang to indicate someone had arrived. To Mondo, he just waved politely at a girl with uneven purple hair. But to Byakuya, he scowled at her.

 

"Hi." Mondo said with a smile, quickly losing it when Byakuya spoke.

"What are you doing here, Mikan?" The blonde glared. With the tone of Byakuya's angered voice, Mondo could definitely tell that this girl was a ghoul and she and Byakuya have some history.

"Wha... I'm sorry... I-I just wanted to come in and have a coffee..." she timidly remarked.

"Well,  _you're_ not welcome here."

"...I'm sorry, B-Byakuya... I only wanted-"

"Please stop talking, you irritate me more than Fukawa ever did."

 

Mondo glanced at Byakuya the moment he mentioned Touko, he had always hated her... He never saw how he felt about her when the news spread that she had died.

 

"...I didn't mean to t-trick you l-like that... It was t-three years ago..."

"And you'll never be forgiven in an eternity."

"Byakuya, that's enough. I know we both want to kill her but not in the café." Kazuichi demanded. Mikan then looked at Mondo and saw the eye patch.

"Eeek!... W-what happened to your eye?..." 

 

"My eye? It's just a small scratch." Mondo answered, Mikan obviously wasn't listening as she went over to Mondo and pulled off the eye patch. "Hey!

"It isn't infected but it looks deep!"

"Give it back!" He yelled, snatching his eye patch back while the girl flinched in fear.

"I-I'M SORRY!"

"Agh! No, don't apologise. I'm sorry, you were only trying to-" Mikan then ran out of the café in embarrassment, "-help..."

 

Byakuya then yanked on Mondo's ear.

"Oww!"

"I'm not saying this as a demand, I'm saying it as a warning. Mikan is untrustworthy and she'll stab you in the back if you ever ask her for help."

"Is that why you don't like-"

"Don't change the subject! I'm warning you, Oowada, do _not_ engage with that whore."


	7. Fooled By Doubts

Around midday, Amaya let everyone go early but let those who still wanted to work stay, Mondo left to go train with Gundam. He walked through the street before hearing commotion going on outside a maid café.

"Come on, girly. Date me now." A boy, seemingly around Mondo's age, spoke as he harrassed a girl with two more friends of his.

"P-please stop... I beg of y-you..." Mondo looked in the alleyway as recognised the girl as Mikan, and not only that, but he also recognised the boys as members of the Assassination Vipers, another gang who were rivals to the Crazy Diamonds.

"Hey!" Mondo called out in anger, making the boys turn their attention to him. "How 'bout you leave that girl alone before you get a fucking beatdown from my gang?" He said this as he gritted his teeth and cracked his knuckles.

"Oh shit, it's the leader of Crazy Diamonds!" One of the boys cried out.

"Don't be a pussy, remember that he was the _little one_  of the gang before." The main boy of the trio sneered as he insulted Mondo for his small height when he was a child. It instantly triggered him.

"DON'T CALL ME 'LITTLE'!" He yelled as he ran forward and instantly kneed the leader in the stomach. The boy collapsed and his mates stepped back in fear, Mondo was known to be ferocious and for his lack of control of his emotions but this time, he was more focused and he was getting a better control of his anger, "either you two take him and yourselves out of here before I make you my next target!"

 

The three boys ran out of the alleyway, leaving Mikan alone with Mondo.

"T-thank you!" She smiled with tears in her eyes as the gang leader held out his hand to help her up, "...Wait, you're the boy from Tanaka Café..."

"Yeah, that's right."

"F-Forgive me for m-my actions e-earlier! I only w-wanted help!"

"It's alright! You don't have to keep apologizing."

"No! P-please, draw on me! I could strip!"

"What? No! I won't do that to you!"

"W-why?..."

"You are too nice for shit like that. I don't know anyone who would want to hurt you but they're assholes to do that to a sweet girl." Mikan started blushing at his sentence.

"Y-you're too kind... T-thank you..." She cried as she stumbled on her legs and fell onto his chest, grabbing his shoulders to help her regain balance.

 

She stared at Mondo with a bright red blush, the gang leader was legit getting embarrassed with a girl this close to him, much less her breasts pressing right up with his own chest. He could feel his own face burning up in mad redness. He had to do something to get her off of him but he had to avoid hurting her feelings.

 

"H-how'd you like me to walk ya' home?"

"Wah... W-well, I-I still have a-a job to do so I can't le-eave yet... But, M-maybe you c-can come a-after 7..."

"I can do that." 

"A-alright then... I'll s-see you soon." Mikan shyly waved at the gang leader before walking back into the building where she worked at.

 

 _'So she and Byakuya have some history but he hates her for some reason,"_ Mondo thought while continuing to walk off down the street,  _'how can he hate her? She seems far too nice to hurt anybody, much less be a ghoul... Then again, Sayaka's a ghoul. Maybe Byakuya just hates her for no reason - no that's not it.'_  

 

Mondo turned a corner and saw Gundam and Kazuichi, sitting together.

"Gundam? What's Kaz doing here?" He asked, walking closer to the duo.

"You will address him as Kazuichi or Souda, he is here for your training," Gundam stood up and took off his jacket and scarf to protect the hamsters buried in the article of clothing, "believe that the two of us are enemy ghoul and you have no allies besides you, you can only fight on your own."

"Alright then," Mondo prepared himself and Kazuichi ran straight towards him and sucker punched his chin upwards, knocking him on his ass, "Mmfpth! Oowww!"

"Get up, Mondo." Kazuichi ordered as the gang leader clutched his chin and mouth.

"That hurt, motherfucker!'

"It's supposed to, if I were a normal ghoul who takes lives at a random, you'd be dead by now. And if you're in pain, then get out of the way of danger or you die. You're lucky I went easy on you."

"That was easy?!"

"Kazuichi has a sort of superior strength compared to most of the other ghouls, yours is impeccable." Gundam stated before kicking Mondo in the stomach.

 

Mondo flinched at the pain but quickly got up before coughing vigorously. If it were a normal kick then he wouldn't be coughing like a sick stoner.

"Hang on, Gundam. Let him rest for a moment." The mechanic said the moment Gundam was about to punch Mondo. Kazuichi reached over to the gang leader and helped him up onto some steps to sit down on, "...I bet you're wondering what happened between Mikan and Byakuya, right."

 

He didn't ask, he already knew the answer to that and Mondo looked at him, waiting for the response.

"The medical siren appeared?" Gundam asked with concern as the pinkette nodded.

"Yeah, I had to step in before things could've end up ugly," Kazuichi turned back to Mondo, "they used to be friends once, Byakuya and Mikan. He had just taken the role of Masaru's guardian and she kept visiting the café, I wasn't hired yet but I was told she liked him though but to be honest, I never saw Byakuya harbor any sort of feelings like that kind of love."

"So he was emotionless from the start?" Mondo joked.

"No. Byakuya's happy whenever Masaru or someone he cares about is with him, his emotions are kinda based on one person but not to the extent of a Yandere. That title goes to someone different but it's not Mikan. What happened between them was that she tried to kidnap Masaru for one of her shows, which is mainly a bunch of ghouls watching humans being tortured for fun before eating them."

 

With each sentence, Mondo started to doubt his views on the nurse.

 

"Byakuya... He, uhh, well..." Kazuichi sighed before deciding to give Mondo the gruesome details, "he not only wrecked her party but he also ripped out her throat."

"..!"

"...with his teeth."

"Remind me to never get on his bad side."

"Will do. Now, if you can talk without problems, let's get back to training."

"Oh shit."

 

* * *

 

Completely out of breath and beaten up, Mondo layed on the floor with his mouth bleeding and possible a loose tooth.

 

"The attempt to increase our status in strength is completed for the day." Gundam smirked.

"Just talk normal for once, you crazy occultist." Kazuichi chuckled as he poked the Breeder's forehead as a sign of affection.

"..!"

"Hey, didn't Ibuki say she wanted to meet up with us and that we should bring Mondo with us?"

"Indeed."

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

 

"Is it just me or are you two a couple?" Mondo spoke up as he balanced himself while getting up.

"So what? You homophobic, asshole?!" Kazuichi yelled, raising a fist and making Mondo take some steps backwards in fear of getting his nose punched into his skull.

"No! I'm just curious, besides I... I-I like dudes too..." He embarrassedly admitted with his face turning red.

"So you like me? Hate to break it to ya but I'm kinda already at it with Gundam."

"No! I didn't mean it like that!"

"Oh, well then you're safe," Kazuichi's rage disappeared and was replaced with a smiling mask; Mondo sighed in relief, he felt slightly humiliated due to the fact he was forced to come out but as well as relieved that he won't die tonight, "anyway, let's go!"

 

The mechanic grabbed the gang leader's shoulders and started walking off with him, although it was more of a forcible drag while Gundam followed with a passive expression.

 

Because of Kazuichi's speed, the group was there in 7 minutes. 

"Well, we're here!" Kazuichi slammed the door open with a crazy look on his face, "WAZZZUUUUPPP!!!"

"WAZZZUUUUPPP!!!" Ibuki yelled back as she slammed her hand down on the strings of her electric guitar, "you brought the man?"

"Yup!" Kazuichi shoved Mondo into the building and waited for Gundam before shutting the door.

 

As Mondo went over to a seat, he analysed the inside of the room; Ibuki not only seemed to work at a mask store but also owned her own bar.

 

The punk rocker and the mechanic went up to each other and gave a greeting with strange high five turning into chest bumps, they must be homies.

 

"So Mon-Chan, Ibuki is sorry but your mask won't be finished till tomorrow morning." Ibuki informed as she took her place behind the counter.

"It's okay," As the punk girl flashed a smile, Mondo remembered that one sentence the previous day, "Ibuki. You said something about a ghoul who fits with both titles, what does that mean?"

"Did I say 'a'? I meant to say two, Ibuki is so silly! Anywho, tell Mondo, if a ghoul and a human did some of the magic, what would you get?" Mondo thought for a second.

"A cross between a ghoul and human."

"Nope! You get a corpse!"

 

Mondo to the time to eat his own words after she gave him the answer, Kazuichi and Gundam were seemingly wary as they sat besides the human.

 

"What?"

"Ibuki doesn't know much about anatomy and Sex Ed, but what Ibuki knows is that the baby is too weak. If the mommy is a human and the daddy a ghoul, then the mommy would have to eat other humans so the baby could live! But if it's vice versa, it'd be more challenging. Why? Because the ghoul mommy would mistake her baby for food!"

"Oh damn."

"But, on rare occasions, the baby can be born, and thus, it has one kakugan and one alone!" Ibuki emphasized with pulling down her bottom eyelid.

"Do you know anyone like that?"

"Well," Ibuki turned her gaze to look at Gundam, smiling when he nodded. She pulled out a red bottle and poured it into a wine glass, "we have a Gundam!"

 

Ibuki spun around slightly, 'accidentally' making the red liquid spill onto Gundam's face. 

"Ibuki!" Gundam yelled, grabbing some tissues to wipe away the drink. Mondo's eyes widened when he saw only one black sclera and red iris.

"Whoa..."

 

"Should I tell him about-"

"No Ibuki." Kazuichi demanded.

"But-"

"It's bad enough to have him angry nearly all the time but if you tell Mondo, You-Know-Who will go on a rampage."

"What are you guys talking about?" Mondo interrupted.

 

"Okay! I think it's time for me to take Mondo home! I don't want him to get jumped and then get myself killed for not being responsible!" Kazuichi jumped up and grabbed Mondo by his jacket.

"You are never responsible." Ibuki informed.

"You are so right. Gundam, I'll meet you back at the house!"

 

 

As the doors were shut, Kazuichi and Mondo started walking back to the streets. If it weren't for Kazuichi's rambling about mechanics and Gundam, then the entire walk would've been silent entirely.

 

"Hey Mondo! I'll be leaving you now, I gotta go and check on my cute demon back at the café," Kazuichi gave a slap to Mondo's back, sticking a tracking chip on his jacket with the latter not knowing, "I trust you won't die tonight."

 

The pink haired mechanic jumped off while laughing maniacally, it gave the gang leader the creeps. Mondo then looked at the time.

 

"Oh shit, it's 6:57 already?!" The brunette started running through the streets, his speed almost knocking over some people, out of breath entirely when he saw the maid café closing and Mikan walking off, "H-Hey Mikan!"

"Huh?" The nurse turned around and saw Mondo walking over to her, "oh, you came! I-I thought you wouldn't come."

"I kept a promise, now let me walk you home." Trying to be as kind as possible, Mondo held out his arm so the nurse could hook her own to his. She did so and she gave him the directions to her address.

 

"Y-you're so nice... D-did you-... I mean... A-are you busy t-tomorrow?"

"No, not really. Why?"

"I-I was wondering if you would l-like to spend s-some time with me tomorrow, I-I understand if you d-don't want to-"

"I can hang out with you tomorrow."

"R-really?"

"Yeah!" If there was one thing that could be Mondo's weakness, it'd be getting guilt-tripped by girls.

 

"Oh thank you!" Mikan then hugged Mondo, the boy was unaware of her actions as she was sniffing his scent. She pulled away before he could get suspicious, "I'm g-glad I wasn't alone, my home is this way but y-you can go home now."

"Wait, where do you wanna meet up?"

"Umm, at the 20th ward. With t-that fancy restaurant?" 

"Alright, I'll wear something nice."

 

Mikan gave a sweet smile before waving goodbye and walking off, hiding her evil grin.

 

Mondo started walking back to his home, just thinking that probably Kazuichi and Byakuya were wrong. He was unaware of the figure watching him on the roof of an apartment.

 

"He's going either way... Darn fool. I guess Byakuya won't be pleased if I tell him about this," the figure spoke quietly, "but what Byakuya doesn't know won't kill him. I guess it might be time for me to pay a visit back to that show again."

 

 

* * *

 

Mondo waited at the destination and he was soon greeted by Mikan, who was wearing a lovely pink dress.

 

"You look pretty." He complimented, making the girl flush red.

"Oh... T-thank you..." Mikan kindly took his hand and started walking into the building, she registered a table with the receptionist and instead of a table, she took them to a room.

 

"This is where you leave all important essentials you don't want to lose, if you need anything, just ask." 

"O-Oh umm... Where's your bathroom?... And may my friend have a coffee while he waits?" Mikan timidly asked before turning to Mondo, "I need t-to go powder my nose..."

"Go ahead."

"The bathroom is right this way, ma'am." The receptionist lead Mikan out the room.

 

Mondo took a seat after he dropped off his and Mikan's items in a corner. After a few minutes, a man wearing a mask walked in with a tray carrying coffee.

 

"Order from Mikan Tsumiki."

"Thanks man, where is she anyway?" The man didn't say anything and he left quickly, "rude bastard, much?"

 

Once the door closed, Mondo felt the ground moving as it started ascending. As the windows disappeared beneath the lifting platform, Mondo saw a light from above.

 

"What the fuck?!" The ceiling started to open and Mondo heard cheering. He saw so many people sitting like they would at a coliseum.

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special dish blessed to us from the generousity of our beloved Madame Venus!" A voice from a loudspeaker alerted everyone and a light shone on a woman wearing a masquerade mask and men standing next to her.

 

Mondo's eyes widened the moment she started speaking.

"Mikan?!"


	8. A Rusty Rescue

Mondo looked at the balcony with disbelief; Byakuya and Kazuichi were right about Mikan... She is a backstabber, why is he such an idiot?

 

"Evening, my lovely audience," the girl called out, "I feel ashamed for not bringing you more than I usually offer, but lend me your ears, this mortal is an infamous gang leader to the most feared biker gang in all of Japan and his scent is absolutely exquisite!"

 

As Mikan gave her speech, Mondo heard gates being opened very slowly.

 

"I'm delighted to say that he will give you a performance you will enjoy before having  _your meal_." 

 

Once the nurse had finished, a giant man came out of the dark gates, wearing a black mask to hide his face and carrying what seemed to be a sycthe. Mondo felt cold sweat running down his spine in fear, he steadied his stance to prepare himself to run.

 

"...me... Celebrate... Killing you!" The giant yelled incoherently and he ran, aiming his sycthe at the gang leader, who took off aimlessly.

 

 _'Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! I never should've agreed to meeting this bitch! I'll be dead if I don't find a way out of here!'_ He thought while his eyes wondered through the coliseum to find any sort of escape route.

 

To his shock, the blade of the sycthe halted him in his run when it landed in front of the teenager.  _'The fuck?! He managed to throw the blade from that far?!'_

 

Mondo took notice that the colossal brute who intended to kill him was nearly behind him, so the brunette quickly got out of the way by rolling just in time.

 

"Quickly! Hurry up and kill him!" One of the cries from the audience.

"Keep going!"

"Rip him to shreds!"

 

Mondo's eyes dialated when the brute managed to make his way in front of him, sweat ran down his forehead as he tripped over his feet and landed on his stomach.  _'Fuck! I just had to be born with two left feet!'_  

 

"Make... Momma... Proud!.." the colossal brute raised his weapon and swung, only for his rusted blade to penetrate the floor. The masked man turned his fat head to the direction Mondo went, seeing that the latter was panting as his hair fell out of his pompadour, with a batch of it on his left side separating from the rest of his hair after being cut off by the blade in the process of getting away.

 

"Shit..." Mondo cursed, guess trying to look good for the crowd has been discontinued.

 

The brute forced the blade out of the stone ground and clumsily began to walk straight to Mondo.

 

"Momma... Be proud!..." It blurted out before a pink and black flash speeded it's way past the abnormal creature and stood in front of Mondo in means of protecting him, "huh?..."

 

The gang leader remained shock as the figure in front of him turned his head and gave a toothy grin with his shark teeth, the activated kakugan made him more terrifying.

 

"S-Souda?!" He called out in disbelief.

"That's my name!" The pink haired mechanic smiled as he turned back to face his opponent.

 

"W-what?! Is that..." 

"I thought he was dead."

"The infamous Crystal Shark? It's been a long time." Mikan said in shock, the mention of the name made Kazuichi tense up.

 

"...t-try me bitch... I'm not here to give another show, I'll just take what's mine and leave..." With that sentence, the mechanic ran at the colossal beast coming at them and his kagune spurted out of his back... But it came out of Kazuichi's shoulder and coccyx, giving Mondo a surprise.

 

"Two?" The kagune... Didn't seem natural, the colours were different with a shade of vermillion orange and chartreuse green.

 

The fight before him made Mondo realise that Kazuichi was really holding back while training him with Gundam, more of a reason to not to get on his bad side.

 

As quick as a flash, Kazuichi was behind the colossal brute and gave a strong punch to his head. So strong that his fist penetrated the thick skull and pushed the brain out but it remained stuck to the hand.

 

Blood spilt onto Kazuichi's face as his gaze drifted upwards, where Mikan's post was. He gave a sickening smile as he pulled up his middle finger at her, kicking the brain off his fist. He mouthed a sentence at her, "this will be you one day."

 

The pinkette pulled out his fist and the corpse fell to the ground, motionless.

 

"Alright Mondo, let's go-" when Kazuichi turned to face the latter, he saw that he was trembling, "oh, relax. It was just a little hitch on a rescue mission." The mechanic grabbed Mondo's wrist and started walking off through a dark hall, making the gang leader even more paranoid than before.

 

Mondo could tell that they were now in the sewers due to it's foul stench, their walk was completely silent until they reached a ladder that lead up. "Okay! This is where we escape now!" Kazuichi said while motioning for Mondo to climb up.

 

"..." Mondo was still in shock after everything that had just happened, he remembered a name that Mikan had called Kazuichi, "...They called you Crystal Sha-"

 "Don't say it." The pinkette muttered in a low raspy voice.

"What? Why the fuck not?" The gang leader started, clearly frustrated that he wasn't getting any answers to what happened.

"..." Kazuichi remained silent, trying to think of a proper excuse that wouldn't be suspicious.

"Come on, I wanna what the fuck was that? And why did they call you... that? What kind of kagune is that? And why me? Why on my brother's balls did Mikan put me through all of that-"

"Will you just shut up?!" The elder teen shouted, "just because you got yourself into tons of shit because you didn't listen to either me or Byakuya doesn't mean you have a right to know every single fucking disaster that happens to us!"

"...uh..."

"You know about Masaru and you know about Mikan, in fact you knew she was dangerous after we told you and YET YOU IGNORED OUR WARNINGS!"

 

Mondo sighed, he couldn't deny that what he did was probably the most idiotic thing he's ever done in his life. All he had to do was admit he was wrong.

 

"Alright, I admit it. I was wrong to ignore what you told me but... It was just so vague, I really didn't understand the entire story," Mondo looked back at Kazuichi after having his hands shoved deep into his jacket and saw how the latter's arms were folded and how he had an expression on his face that only told Mondo to keep explaining, "...and I met up with Mikan by coincidence, she was being attacked by a few members of a rival gang of mine so I had to do something. She then invited me to this... Place, I was thinking that it was a bad idea but I wanted to know about your history with her..." The brunette took in a deep breath, as if a wave made up of nothing but wet relief just crashed on top of him, "that's a mistake I won't make ever again, I'm sorry Kazuichi."

 

Kazuichi closed his eyes as he breathed and once he opened them again, his face bore a relaxed expression.

 

"...it's all cool, Oowada. If I were in your place, I'd be curious too. Just be glad that it wasn't Byakuya who came after you and that he doesn't know either," then Kazuichi looked at Mondo's badly cut hair, "well, he's gonna want to know about that."

 

Mondo ran a hand through his hair with a pout, "I really liked it long."

"I might cut it for you, anyway let's go."

"Kazuichi," Mondo called out, making the said ghoul pause the moment he placed his hand on the ladder, "can you at least... Tell me about your history with Mikan?"

The pinkette moved his head to look at the ground.

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to."

"... it's going to be a long story though. You may wanna sit." 

 

Mondo did so and he pressed his back against the wall as he and Kazuichi both sat down next to each other.

 

"It starts off from before I met Mikan when I was a kid," he began, "my dad was... A worker at this place, what this job does is kidnapping unsuspecting humans and putting them into a colloseum of ghouls where they are brutally murdered by a host and then their corpses are eaten by the ghouls."

"..." Mondo's eyes widened in disgust at the idea of his mutilated body being eaten.

"It was basically dinner  _and_ a show all at once, the ghouls would always do this every fortnight... At least l think it was but I'll explain that soon. My dad was starting to his popularity doing his job as all of his hosts were pretty boring so me being a six year old ghoul who was packing with strength..."

"D-don't tell me..." Kazuichi gave a nod at Mondo's words.

"Well, at first he took me here, taught me the basics of how it ran, how much it paid and that one day I might take over it. Too bad money was pretty tight for us and dad was being rushed to find a new host to kill a victim... he ran out of options and made me a host... It hurt at first but soon I was known as the strongest host, even though all of them knew I was a ghoul as well but to my asshole of a father, he didn't see me as strong enough so he learned a bit about chemistry and experimented on me. It was nothing but pure torture, having tools cut into your skin and chemicals injected into you, he experimented with my DNA, my strength, kagune..."

"... I'm sorry..." Mondo whispered in pity.

"...all of that torture made me begin to lose my reality with the world... But I wouldn't stay in that place for more than a day. One day I met Mikan when we were 13, she was a host as well to her bitch of mother, she and I became close as we didn't have anyone else to turn to... I was still a bit sane back then..."

 

Kazuichi breathed, his fists clenching before he punched it into the wall besides him, shaking the ground. Mondo tensed up in fear.

 

"We had so many dreams together... One day, Mikan had managed to kill her mother and my father while I was in a cell to let me let out all my pain aftra the last experiment to my body, I was surprised but I also felt relieved for lots of reasons," Kazuichi's eyes darted to check up on Mondo to see him pinching his eyelids gently before looking back up. The pinkette gave a soft sigh that managed to bounce of the gloomy walls into the lonely darkness, "I thought she was going to free me... she never did...she left me to rot in that cell... And I went mad... I cursed her name so many times I had lost count. I only lived in that cell for 1 week... But I was traumatised." The pinkette muttered as he held onto his legs.

"... I... I didn't know..."

"Well, of course you didn't. Why would I tell you this if you already knew?" Kazuichi joked.

"Just... How did you escape?..." Mondo asked, making the mechanic besides him look up at nothing and smile.

"I have Gundam to thank for that."

 

The pinkette gave a soft, genuine smile as he remembered the day he and Gundam met.

 

* * *

 

_"Masaru! Young child!" Gundam yelled as he entered a room with multiple rusty cells, as if you would want to imprison someone, "where did that medical siren place you?"_

 

_"...you mean Mikan?..." The black haired ghoul imprisoned in his cell asked in such a whisper, Gundam could barely hear him._

_"Reveal yourself in the light, fiend!" Gundam demanded, threatening to show his kagune._

_"...I can't..."_

_"And why is that?"_

_"... I'm in here..."_

 

_Gundam walked further to where Kazuichi's voice came from and looked to the side and his eyes widened at the fucked up sight of Kazuichi._

 

_The soon to be pinkette was a mess, extremely skinny; reeking of dried up blood; the fading scars surrounding his jaw._

 

_"...by the gods... What in the name of holy spirits has happened to you?..." Gundam whispered, bending down to Kazuichi's sitting level._

_"...a bitch left me in here to rot." Kazuichi gave a timid smile that informed Gundam that this ghoul had suffered so much that he was practically insane._

_"You're almost dead..." He stated, worried about how skinny this boy is._

_"... y-you won't leave me in here too, will you?..."_

_"What?"_

_"...Mikan left me here, so did my dad... I haven't met anyone else since them..." Kazuichi rose to his feet and walked over to the bars, shackles rattling as he placed his hand on Gundam's, "please don't leave me here..."_

_"I..."_

_"Please, I- I'll return the favour for you," Kazuichi begged with wide eyes filled with fear, "I don't wanna be left in here all alone, I wanna go outside and be with others. I'll work for you but if I can't, I can help with core mechanics so you won't have to worry about me finding a job."_

 

_Their eyes gazed through the others, both of them felt a sewing connection growing stronger between them until screams filled their ears._

 

_"What on..."_

_"Mikan?..."_

_"Byakuya must have found her and Masaru," Gundam looked back at Kazuichi, his heart breaking at the hopeful look on his face, "I will not leave you here."_

 

_Gundam placed his other hand besides the one holding the bars and gave a sharp yank, ripping the door from its hinges. He grabbed Kazuichi's wrist and began running to where Mikan's blood curdling scream was heard, completely aware of the blush the ghoul had given him._

 

_"Thank you!" Kazuichi began as his eyes filled with tears. Gundam stopped running and looked at the ghoul who rubbed his eyes to dry them off._

_"You may address me as the future overlord who will one day rule the earth, Gundam Tanaka!" Kazuichi gave a small grin of happiness and laughter that made Gundam blush._

_"I'm Kazuichi... Kazuichi Souda. I'll be glad to have you ruling this world... What's the matter?" Kazuichi asked when he noticed the breeder's red face._

_"...no one has ever praised my goals or taken them seriously before..."_

_"Nah, I think it's a great goal in life: to always try to achieve things bigger than yourself," the noirette praised in content, pleased with how Gundam hid his face in his scarf, "thanks for saving me."_

_"Have no fear, I will take you home with me..."_

 

* * *

 

"...he then took me back to Tanaka Café and I met with his mother, she was really nice, I ate again, you can already guess what happened between me and Gundam..." Kazuichi paused momentarily, "I thought Mikan was dead until me, Gundam and Ibuki got the letters to join Hope's Peak and then I saw her."

 

Mondo saw the crazed, angry look in the mechanic's eyes before it disappeared and Kazuichi gave a strong slap to the gang leader's back.

"Hey, it's all in the past now! How 'bout we go before anyone else finds us, you don't want Byakuya to hurt you more than he will after he finds out about this, right?"

"Don't you mean 'if'?"

"Nope. He'll find out either way."

 

The blood drained from Mondo's face as a small bead of sweat dripped down his forehead, he was  _so_ dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made an edit for how long Kazuichi was imprisoned for because after a long ass time, I realized that at the age Kazuichi would be in after 10 years wouldn't really make much sense with him still remembering how to be a mechanic if he goes to Hope's Peak literally a year later. Sure, you may think that it might work if I just add a detail that Kazuichi has a crazy memory but I'm going to do that because it wouldn't make him realistic so I changed the years to something much shorter but long enough for him to still be traumatized from the experience and for him to get to know the group at Tanaka Café for a longer time. 
> 
> Sorry for the late change.


	9. Always Watch What You Say To Ghouls

"How many kagune types are there?" The gang leader asked.

"Well, there's Koukaku," Kazuichi pointed at where the lower half of his shoulder blade was, "Ukaku," he pointed at a shoulder, "Rinkaku," he pointed at his lower back, "and Bikaku, the one at the coccyx."

 

Mondo and Kazuichi were already out of the sewers and hurrying to get closer to Tanaka Café before Byakuya could arrive at his scheduled time in his daily basis.

 

"Sorry for asking, but why did they call you..." A look from Kazuichi made Mondo correct himself, "...that name?"

"Well, most diamonds are fake," Kazuichi paused his sentence to lean down and stroke a cat that purred at his feet, "so you take a rock and start molding it... And the result is something of perfection."

 

Mondo thought about his gang before he gave a soft sigh before asking another question.

 

"And I thought ghouls immediately healed themselves after any injury from a kagune or that other thing? How could you get cut from your dad and not regenerate your skin immediately? More so if you can't get cut." Mondo thought out loud.

"...to be honest, that's a mystery I haven't figured out yet. He must've immobilised me when I was still a kid and altered my regeneration abilities with some syrum, and/or he injected something into my eye to stop my kagune and skin from protecting me."

 

Kazuichi scratched his head while smirking at Mondo. The gang leader continued his walk in the direction to the café, how is it that one person is able to hide their insanity so easily?

 

 "Wait a second, you said 'eye'."

"That's right, the only available place that can have anything inserted into it on a ghoul's body... Is the eye." Kazuichi pulled down his bottom eyelid with one finger to emphasize his point.

"Oh..." Mondo did stop walking to take in a deep breath to keep himself from freaking out before continuing walking.

"But whatever reason why my dad did that to me is something I don't know."

 

Kazuichi smirked at Mondo's sudden silence, feeling a bit good that the gang leader was in regret for what he did.

 

The pinkette then looked ahead as his eyebrows furrowed.  _'Mikan... Be grateful that you had kept your distance... I would've killed you if Mondo wasn't there.'_ he thought, if Mikan tried apologizing by saying she'll strip, then Kazuichi will leave her naked on a curb with her head missing. That way men will make use for her body without feeling sorry for an innocent looking girl.

 

"Understand this, Mondo," he spoke up after the small uncomfortable silence, "not all ghouls are strong like me... I don't think I'm strong because of something that happened to me. I'm strong because I know what it's like to be weak... At the mercy of someone else's hand who could do anything to you..."

"You've had it bad."

"I know."

"Did your dad ever take you out of the cell and back home?"

"Sometimes, but I don't remember entirely. They say the bad memories stay with you forever while you forget your happiness."

 

In no time, the duo had reached their destination. As Mondo reached for the door, Kazuichi groaned in discomfort and grabbed the metal bar to steady himself.

 

"Souda, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'll go in soon, Mondo. You can go ahead and eat something to cool off." Kazuichi said while waving before sitting down to relax and look at the slowly falling sun.

 

 

Mondo did as he was told and went in, pretty glad that it was practically empty. No Byakuya, no other ghoul, just silence for five minutes.

 

He sat down on the chair and layed his head in his hands.

 

_'Byakuya's an asshole but he sure does know his stuff so does Kazuichi, and everyone else... They all must have secrets too and that's fucking up my mind, all I wanted was a date.'_

 

"Hello Oowada-san," the welcoming voice of Amaya disturbed his thoughts but he hid his look of surprise with a smile.

"Oh, hi Amaya."

"I've interrupted a deep thought, haven't I?" She asked, "I'm sorry."

"No, you haven't. It's just..." Mondo sighed as he remembered what he should've asked her earlier, "Amaya, on Friday... When I ate some normal food, it tasted fucking awful - pardon my french - but I could eat human meat like it was natural. Is that a bad sign?"

 

A chuckle emitted from Amaya as she walked behind the counter and brought out two mugs as she began making her famous coffee, it was at this moment that Mondo noticed that the middle aged woman carried a walking cane with her most of the times; he must've been in too much shock to notice it first time.

 

"Well, Oowada, let me ask you something. Do you think I'm a ghoul?" The question made Mondo's eyes widen.

"Wait, you're  _not_ a ghoul?" The shake of the woman's head boggled his mind even further, "b-b-b-but..."

"You must have some questions," she spoke up, but when Mondo opened his mouth, she interrupted him, "you only get three."

"What? Why three?"

"Because I say so, and that was your first question."

"Wha... No, Amaya, please. I'm confused," Mondo stood up and walked around for a moment, "just how are you a human if your son is a ghoul?"

"Half-ghoul," she corrected, "I thought Ibuki told you about this."

"She did, and I'm still confused."

"...Listen Oowada, I was young, around 18 or 19. I used to be a rebel, like you, but then one day, I went fooling around and I found myself hooking up with a man who turned out to be a ghoul..." She narrated, her voice solemn and depressed, "...it wasn't even a month and I had found myself pregnant, the man I had engaged with told me everything, his ghoul secret; the half-bred child not surviving, everything... I was scared that I could lose the baby more than the fact that I could lose my life, so I committed myself to what I needed to do for my child to survive," Mondo's spine ran cold at the mental image of a pregnant woman eating the flesh off a skull, "and it worked. But because of me having Gundam, the man had left me alone with the child, and I put up with it and I now have an even bigger family than I had started with."

 

Mondo looked at the older woman with sympathy, he never really knew his own father that well and there were only memories of abuse. His mom and older brother managed to run away from the man by the time Mondo turned 5. Amaya poured the drink into the mug as she continued her story.

 

"But... When I gave birth to Gundam, it had a bad affect on my body. Not only did it leave my internal organs slightly damaged and leave me with a limp in my leg, but the craving for human flesh had never left me... I could no longer call myself a human," she gently pushed the cup to Mondo, "but I began experimenting with different foods and drinks, I discovered that ghouls could drink coffee but when I produced different substances from other coffee products, it was futile... But not for me. Since I was human since procreation, I have mere pieces of my humanity but I can drink whatever coffee produces... And I don't have a doubt that you won't be able to do the same."

 

The black haired woman gave a smile to the gang leader as she gestured for him to drink his coffee.

 

"Amaya, you have to tell me more about that-" he started before he got interrupted.

"You still need to know more about ghouls until I consider you an elite student," now that confused him, "drink up."

"But-"

"I said... Drink up." She said with a strict frown before it turned to a smile before going back to the frown.

"You're a mean mother, aren't you?" He teased.

"Yes I am, and that was your last question."

"Huh?!"

"Well go on kiddo." She smiled.

 

Mondo smiled back and brought the cup to his lips, thinking about how Amaya was a really sweet and caring mother, just like his own.

 

The door then opened with Masaru bursting in with a brown wig on his head and Kiyotaka walking alongside with him.

 

"Taka, I thought Byakuya was gonna be here before us." Masaru stated after looking around in the room and taking his wig off.

"Well, it's only because Byakuya is...busy. I'm sure he'll be here soon-" Kiyotaka turned his head and saw Mondo, "Kyoudai! What happened to you? You look awful!"

"Gee, thanks(!)" Mondo replied in sarcasm as Kiyotaka began to check his head, moving it around to see if there were any scars.

 

"Huh?" Masaru looked at his partner in crime and saw the uneven cut hair, "hey, your hair's not a hotdog anymore!"

"No, it was more of a baguette. (It looked quite ridiculous)." Kiyotaka thought out loud.

"I thought he was imitating a corn." Amaya said while chuckling.

 

Masaru lifted his head closer and smelt the air around Mondo, thanks to his strong sense of smell, he could immediately identify where he has been and who he has been with.

 

"Why do you smell like a whore?" The sudden question made Mondo choked on his coffee; Amaya freeze on the spot and Kiyotaka violently flinched at the language.

"M-Masaru... Where did you hear that?..." The raven asked with a shaky sense in his voice.

"From Big Brother Byakuya!"

"Wait what?"

"He is coming soon, right?"

 

Mondo looked at the two boys in confusion,  _'what's Byakuya doing that's delaying him? Isn't he supposed to be some rich business man?'_

"I'm fu-" he stopped himself when he saw Masaru looking at him, "I'm confused, where is Togami?"

 

* * *

 

 

Daiya panted as he watched the ghoul he was after escape.

 

"Shit!..." He gripped his quinque with an iron grip, giving himself a balanced posture. The former gang leader pulled out his phone and contacted Kyouko, it only gave two rings before the young CCG member picked up.

"Yes?" The response was always bland, no emotion whatsoever.

"Kirigiri, I'm sorry but the Moth escaped."

"Did you manage to injure it?"

"Affirmative, but it wasn't enough."

"I see. I will inform the chairman as soon as possible, what of Mr Tsubasa?"

"He's alright, he let me go after the Moth, saying that if I fail we'd get him next time. Unfortunately, one of his sons was critically injured."

"Alright then, I'll send in an ambulance."

 

With that, Kyouko hung up and left Daiya in silence. He glared at where the ghoul had disappeared.

 

The raven could see that he was useless standing there doing nothing but it would be pointless to go after the Moth now, so he removed himself from the area.

 

* * *

 

 

Mondo sat in a seat tapping his fingers against his leg in nervousness while Kiyotaka grabbed some scissors.

 

With his hairstyle in an uneven mess, people would be asking Mondo why it was like that. Amaya had even suggested that if Mondo were to get into CCG fight, then the Doves would be interrogating anyone with a bleached pompadour and find him out immediately.

 

The gang leader has always hated haircuts, maybe even slightly afraid but he wasn't going to let a small trim ruin his best look.

 

"Don't be worried, Mondo. Haircuts are known to scare people with long hair." Kiyotaka tried to reassure him as he picked up a brush and ran it through the two toned hair.

"I'm not scared!" Lie. Mondo would never admit it personally but he was scared of haircuts... And spiders.

"I have cut hair before, and I promise that this time, it will be successful!" There was that loud, booming, cheerful voice that Taka always used at school, usually it would be annoying but now it made Mondo smile a little bit, until he realised what Kiyotaka had just said.

"What do you mean by 'this time'?!"

"Don't worry, Kyoudai, it will look good!"

"Then I'm alright with having my hair long when I die." 

 

Taka looked at the cut piece of hair he held in his hand in guilt.

 

"Too late."

 

* * *

 

Byakuya wore a purple robe that reached his ankles and bandages around his entire body, save for his head covered by a plain green mask that only had one hole for his eye. He scowled as the blood dripping from his new wound stained his outfit.

 

"Bloody doves..."

 

The blonde ghoul gripped his side in pain as he watched the ghoul investigator leave the alleyway, he pressed his back against a wall and slid down it.

 

"Hello Moth." The luscious voice filled his ears as he opened his eyes.

"Oh, hello Aphrodite(!)" He muttered sarcastically, "what do you want?"

 

Although she was wearing a lingerie getup and her masquerade mask, Byakuya could easily identify Mikan.

 

"Using my street name? I thought you wanted me to die."

"Not at the hands of any CCG member, at the hands of the Rattlesnake," he whispered Kazuichi's name given to him by the CCG, "he'd like that very much."

"So you're not mad?" The purple haired ghoul sneered, making Byakuya cross his arms in irritation.

"Of course I'm still mad at you, I won't be killing you because Masaru is still alive."

"Either w-way, that's not why I'm here..." Mikan smiled once again when her former friend remained silent, "you see, my friends'  _meal_ has escaped..."

 

A growl bounced off the wall and went in Mikan's direction.

 

"What does your ghoul show have anything to do with me? Unless you want to eat me or something..."

"No... Let me just say that the human got away..."

"Tch! None of your victims ever escape."

"Not this one, Crystal Shark broke in and saved him." This time, Byakuya's attention was completely captured.

"Let me guess: someone I know?" She nodded, "highly unintelligent?" Another nod, "I should've known, you managed to fool another pitiful human."

 

Byakuya crossed his arms as he thought of a few schemes to get back at Mondo for disobeying him. This shocked Mikan.

 

"A-aren't you going to kill him?" The purple haired girl questioned.

"Please. Taka would kill  _me_ if I did."  

"You may have to stand up to him... Just like you did to your family-" Byakuya scowled immediately and rapidly turned on his heel, the red mist starting to sprout from his shoulders.

 

" _Shut your mouth_!" It may have only been one sentence that many people use in anger, but Mikan took a step back as she had faced this side of Byakuya before, "don't mention _those_ _people_ in any conversation. I made a mistake trusting you, much less leave you alive to die."

"... Listen Kak-"

"Don't. Call me. That!"

 

Mikan's eyes widened as Byakuya ran towards her with his Ukaku kagune hardened in its crystal form before it gave a strong flap and broken shards flung her way, nicking parts of her jaw and torso.

 

"Ngh!..." Mikan snarled, getting up and jumping away.

"Coward!" The blonde yelled.

 

Byakuya stopped running the moment the girl had disappeared, placing his hand back onto his bleeding hip.

 

* * *

 

 

"There!" Kiyotaka informed cheerfully as he gave one last  _snip_ with the scissors and then realising what a mess the hair style was, "oh..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mondo asked as his hands shot out to find a mirror.

"I-it's not that bad!" The moral boy spoke nervously. The brunette grabbed the brass handle of a hand mirror and looked at his hair.

"Not that bad?!" Mondo turned his vision to look at his crush in horror until he saw the tearful look the raven wore, "...uh... I love it!"

"Really?" That beaming look on his face gave Mondo the evidence that smiles are contagious.

"Yeah... It's nice..." Mondo then touched one of his locks, "where did you learn how to cut hair?"

"I learned from the best."

 

The two boys blushed and gazed at each other, their bodies beginning to move closer.

 

"Hey boys!" The yell from Kazuichi made both Mondo and Kiyotaka jump away from each other, "what's going on in here?"

"Nothing!" The duo spoke in unison the moment the mechanic burst through the doors.

"Wow, Mondo, you've had a haircut!" The pinkette snickered while covering his mouth and slumping down onto the couch.

"Hey. I like it..." Mondo muttered in a tsundere way.

"...man I feel sick." Kazuichi moaned in a small amount of pain.

"You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, it must be the fact that I moved too much after eating."

 

As Kazuichi gave a smile, Byakuya came through the doors soon after. The blue eyed heir then took notice of the scene, from Mondo's bad haircut to Kazuichi's sick look.

 

"Oh no, this is bad... Taka cut your hair, didn't he?" He asked Mondo, who quickly gave a nod before Kiyotaka could notice.

"I'm sorry, I'm getting better though." The moral boy admitted.

"Well, you still need more practice, Kiyotaka."

 

"You taught him?" The gang leader asked.

"Yeah, when we were younger. And Oowada, we need to talk about a certain witch..." Mondo gulped when the sentence had finished.

"I told you he would find out!" Kazuichi blurted out.

"Shut up, Souda," Byakuya looked at Kiyotaka, "pass me the scissors."

"Byakuya. If you're thinking about-"

"I'm going to fix the mess you made, not kill him..." Byakuya muttered as he was given the scissors, "...yet..."

 

Mondo felt his body tensing when Byakuya came up behind him and grabbed a tuff of his hair.

 

"Wow, has anyone ever told you that you have so many split ends?"

"No."

"Tch," After a few snips in the silence, Byakuya said, "I thought I told you not to trust her."

"Yeah, about that, I'm-"

"You were curious, I can allow that but don't say sorry for something you meant to do. If you didn't mean to do it, then you should've left it where it was and never have met up with her. Once something is done, it cannot be undone."

"Right..."

"where's Masaru?"

"He's in the next room watching a movie." Mondo hesitantly replied, "he also said that he wants his friends to come over for a sleepover."

"That's nice, I'll consider letting him have one."

 

Kiyotaka sat next to Kazuichi in relief, glad with the lack of tension in the room.

 

"So what movie is he watching?"

"Finding Nemo."

"That movie?... Alright."

"Hey Togami... Why did Mikan kidnap Masaru?"

 

Byakuya stopped his hand from moving any further, the blades right in front of Mondo's face. He could see his and Byakuya's emotions through the reflection.

 

"Uhh... wha-"

"Your hair's done," Byakuya closed the scissors and hid his own reflection, "based on the amount of hair on the floor, you'll be able to put your hair back into a pompadour in four months if you don't damage it."

"But-"

 

**_Thunk_ **

 

Byakuya said nothing as he slammed the scissors into the table and began walking away.

 

"H-hey... Togami!" Mondo called out, getting out of the chair and running after the blonde.

 

Kiyotaka and Kazuichi looked at each other in worry.  _'this will not go well,'_ they thought at the same time.

 

Outside in the hallway, Byakuya was just about to reach the other room with Masaru in it.

 

"Togami! Togami, wait up!" Mondo said as he caught up to the ghoul.

"What is it?" Byakuya aimed a glare in Mondo's direction.

"Just... You completely shut me up back there."

"And the problem is..." Completely uninterested in what Mondo was going to say, Byakuya continued his small journey until he felt a hand grabbing his wrist.

 

The blonde froze at the touch, feeling a string of emotions flow into him.

 

"Don't walk away from me, Togami! Just what is up with you? Why are you acting like such a bitch?! Just tell me what Mikan and Masaru have anything to do with you. Is it because that incident made you adopt Masaru-"

 

Mondo stopped talking when nails started painfully digging into his forearm. He looked back up at Byakuya, his eyes widened when he saw the heir turn around to face him and reveal his kakugan activated in only his right eye.

 

"Don't... Touch me or I'll rip your arm off!..." The raspy demand made Mondo's blood run cold as he tried pulling his arm away from Byakuya but only stumbling backwards a bit when the blonde let go.

 

Byakuya turned away and placed his hand on the door handle.

 

"Sorry... I can tell you're not going to tell me anything, right?" Mondo asked quietly, he didn't like feeling like this... So weak compared to a ghoul- no... Half-ghoul.

"Right." 

"...why?"

 

Byakuya gave only a sideways glance as his kakugan deactivated.

 

"That's none of your business."


	10. Must Help Every Girl (Even If She Is A Ghoul That Tried To Kill Me)

_Cold_   _rain_   _gently splashed onto a grey umbrella belonging to a young Mondo Oowada. He sat on the small steps that led up to a small apartment that he, his brother and mother live in._

 

_The young child kept looking around the area to see if Daiya was about to turn the corner, his Maltese dog sat next to Mondo as he sighed in impatience before standing up and walking over to the sidewalk._

 

_"Big brother said he would be back soon but he didn't say that I can't look  for him." He said mischievously, "come'n Chuck!" He smiled as his dog barked at him before following him._

 

_He shivered at the biting cold, Mondo's mother didn't earn enough money so all he could wear were loose hand-me-downs from his brother that were either too big or too torn._

 

_"Ruff! Ruff!" Chuck barked as he went through a small alleyway._

_"Chuck? What is it, boy?" The brunette asked, quickly running to catch up with his pet. He noticed that Chuck was barking at something, "who's there?"_

 

_He mentally screamed at how high pitched his voice was, of course he was only six years old, almost seven since his birthday was in a month. Hesitantly, Mondo brought in some courage and stepped closer to Chuck and saw a small figure too small to be an adult._

 

_"...hello?"_

_"...!" The child squealed in fright as they tried to curl into a ball._

_"H-hey, it's alright! I won't hurt you." The brunette child stated, making the smaller one look up to him._

_"You won't?..." He asked timidly, dirt covered his face and his clothing was torn._

_"No," Mondo smiled before holding out a hand to the boy, "I'm Mondo Oowada, nice to meet you."_

_"..." The boy remained silent, looking at the ground in thought._

_"This is Chuck, my pet dog and best friend," he beckoned the maltese over, his smile getting wider when the boy gently stroked the dog._

_"...he feels so soft..."_

_"I know, dogs are usually soft but Chuck is the softest dog there ever was! Do you have any pets?"_

_"No..." The boy admitted._

_"Oh, well that's alright. What are you doing in the rain anyway?"_

_"I don't have a home..."_

_"Why?"_

_"Because I can't go back..."_

_"Why?"_

_"...!" Instead of speaking, he only whimpered and at that_ _moment, the boy started crying._

 

_"Whoa, don't cry! I'm here!" Mondo knelt down and hugged the boy to comfort him, balancing the umbrella over them. To his relief, the boy's cries started to stop, "there, there."_

_"...Kakera..." The boy muttered..._

_"Huh?"_

_"...my name is Kakera..." The boy looked at Mondo as he wiped away the wet tears that fell from his blue eyes._

 

* * *

 

 

With the end of that dream, Mondo slowly stirred away as bright beams of light entered his room.

 

He rubbed his eyes at the memory/dream. He could always remember meeting someone but when they started getting to know each other, it just... Stopped. No continuation of the story at all. Daiya always tells him that it was just a dream but Mondo can tell that he's met this 'Kakera' before.

 

And whenever he has the dream, it always changes in a way. The homeless boy stayed the same but the words and actions were different. It weirded him out.

 

As he kicked himself out of bed, the gang leader looked at the recieved mask he just got yesterday from Ibuki. 

 

A hood mask made from leather with a skull print on the chin and mouth area, along with a zipper between the teeth.

 

Mondo looked at the time,  _5:24._ The teen left his room as tired as he would be on a Monday.

 

"Oh hey little bro," Daiya called out and making Mondo jump, "you hungry?"

"Fuck, Daiya, you're gonna give me a heart attack one day."

"No, I won't. You wanna sit down to eat?"

 

 At thee mention of eating, Mondo's gaze travelled down to Daiya's plate. Toaster Strudels, he used to love eating those as a kid but now... He can't.

 

"...sorry, Daiya, I'm not hungry."

"Alright then, remember that the summer festival will be in town this week."

"Eh... Alright."

"'eh'? You always loved going there as a kid."

"Yeah, but now I'm a teenager, almost an adult. Those things are going to be too childish for me."

 

Daiya sighed at his brother's stubbornness before returning his gaze to some files.

 

"Mondo, if you're not interested in going then stay in your dorm room," Mondo turned his gaze back to his older brother in suspicion, "more ghouls are coming out."

"Daiya, what is up with you and ghouls?" Mondo asked in irritation, "I gotta get changed." 

 

With that one sigh, Mondo went back into his room, completely ignorant to what his brother is working as.

 

After getting changed, Mondo went out and got surprised when Daiya held out a paper letter to him.

 

"This was at the door."

 

The brunette quickly took the letter and read it.

 

_Dear Mondo,_

_Thank you for your cooperation at Tanaka Café, as of today, I'm giving you three days off from work so you can relax and spend time with friends since the summer festival is in town._

 

_I'll deal with Byakuya so you don't need to worry. Again, thank you. Come back to Tanaka Café on Thursday, use this time wisely._

 

_All my thanks, Amaya Tanaka._

 

"Who's Amaya?" Daiya asked.

"Did you really just go through my letter?" He asked while Daiya smirked, "Amaya's my boss."

"Oh, what do you work as?"

"A waiter in a café."

"A  _maid café_ -"

"SHUT UP! I'M NOT SOME PERVERTED FUCKTARD!"

 

* * *

Chihiro's head turned around as they stood in front of Mondo's locker. They held a white envelope with a heart sticking it together.

 

Ever since Mondo offered to help them get stronger, Chihiro has held a crush towards the gang leader but remained unaware to his feelings towards Kiyotaka.

 

Their hands stars shaking as they began to position the letter into one of the slots until...

"Hey," the sudden yell made the androgynous teen jumped in fright, "what do you think you're doing?" Chihiro looked back and saw that dark aura emitting from Kiyotaka.

"...uhhh... H-hi, Ishimaru-kun...ho-"

"What are you holding?" He demanded with a hand out, expecting his classmate to hand it over.

"... i-it's a letter..." Chihiro had to admit that facing Kiyotaka when he was in his moral mode, they obviously had no choice but to pass the item in his hand.

 

Kiyotaka made no hesitation to rip the letter open and read it's contents.

 

"What do you want Kyoudai to meet you up for?" The raven glared down at the smaller student.

"I...uhh... Um..."

"Passing notes to other students is against the rules!" Kiyotaka then walked off with the letter and tossed it into the recycling bin before walking out of the locker room.

 

Chihiro felt like breaking down into tears but after remembering a couple of words that Mondo told them, they got up and pulled the real letter with the love confession in it out of their bag.

 

 _'Change of plans, I'll give my love letter to him personally at lunch'_ They thought confidently.

 

_***at lunch***_

 

When Chihiro quickly walked into the classroom to grab the letter. They didn't expect to see torn pieces of the letter and envelope inside the bag.

 

"What? No!" They cried as their small hands picked up the remainder of the paper pieces. "No, why would anyone do this?!"

 

This time, Chihiro couldn't hold it back anymore and they began to sob, letting the tears flow free.

 

Unbeknownst to them, Byakuya had his arms crossed over his chest as he pressed his back against the wall. He listened to Chihiro's sobs in delight before walking off with an evil smirk on his face.

 

 _'There you go, Taka,'_ he thought,  _'nobody will take your 'kyoudai' from you.'_

 

"Yo Togami, wait up!" The heir turned and saw Leon running to catch up with him, "man, why do you have to be so tall?"

"What is it, Kuwata?" 

"Look, I know I said sorry but I never got your answer."

"What?"

"Back at the café, when I brought Mondo in."

"Oh, that day..." Byakuya had a small tint of pink on his cheeks at the memory of Leon jumping up and asking if he was seeing anyone.

"Yeah, I actually meant it."

"You did?"

"Sure I did," Leon gave a smile while rubbing his head, "the summer festival is in town and I was wondering if you were free this week."

 

Byakuya licked his lips in suspicion, nobody has ever asked him out (apart from Fukawa but she doesn't count now, she's dead). Leon was still standing in front of him with a cheese eating grin, still waiting for a response from the pretty blonde.

 

"And this is for..." The heir crossed his arms with a faint frown.

"For us to get to know each other better." Leon almost stuttered, he had a faint scent clinging to him that smelled like a desperate human begging for his life, only the circumstances were much more different. Byakuya couldn't help but think of other ways to get to know humans.

"We have our classes to do so-"

"-but you barely have any intention of doing so," Leon shoved the words into  the blonde's mouth while still holding his gentle smile, Byakuya's eyes widened a bit at the interruption. "You say the same things to anyone who wants to hang out with you but you turn them down by saying the same thing over and over again," Byakuya scowled and drew his eyes away from the redhead, knowing fully well that he was correct with the statement, "come on Byakuya. I get that you're a busy rich kid with a company to take over but I can't help but think about how you never hang out with anyone you're close to. And don't give me a look because I see you hanging with Sayaka and Moral-Boy, I can tell their your friends!"

"They are just my collegues and his name is _Ishimaru Kiyotaka._ " Byakuya retorted to defend his friend.

"And you never bother to remember anyone's name in the first place, last week you forget Aoi's name," the affluent proginy growled in frustration, he was mentally cornered now, "just give me a chance, Byakuya. You need more friends and it must suck just doing paperwork without any company, I just want to hang out with you and have fun. It's alright if you don't want to go."

 

Byakuya's face nearly fell from it's harsh exterior but Leon could see the character break for a moment. The blonde's eyes kept looking in any other corner for an idea of what response to give.

"Well?"

 

* * *

 

 

Everything felt so tiring for Mondo. The whole school day was pointless and other than Kazuichi and Gundam training him, he had nothing else to do.

 

He was so bored. Of course, people at school did ask him what happened to his hair since it was now in a simple ponytail, just how did Daiya not notice that?

 

Maybe he could go to the summer festival, maybe even bring Kiyotaka with him and maybe get closer to each other.

 

He thought otherwise and continued his walk to the hospital while holding a bouquet of flowers. The brunette looked up and saw the large building. Mondo smiled as he walked the doors and to reception.

 

"Hello sir, what are you in for?" The receptionist asked.

"I'm here to visit Reiko Oowada." He replied.

"She's on the second floor in room 244."

"Thanks."

 

It's not every day that Mondo gets to visit his sick mother, she ended up getting cancer due to passive smoking. The family did live in a poor area but to Mondo's mother, it was worth it; it was either her or her children so she spent most of her time in the area working while Daiya worked different jobs and Mondo went to school.

 

Once Mondo reached the door, he knocked on it.

 

"Come in." The female voice was heard and in the gang leader went, there was his mother in the white bed, "Mondo, sweetheart, I thought you were going to be busy today." 

 

Reiko is a middle aged woman, she used to be an outgoing mother and spent a lot of time working so she could give her two sons food and a home but she was also strict as she kept telling Mondo that he can't hit girls unless the girl was being major bitch. 

 

She used to have long brown hair tied up in a side ponytail, but since she was diagnosed, the medicine made her hair fall out but it was growing back into a pixie cut. Ignoring that, it was obvious that Mondo got his looks from his mother.

 

"You still look like really pretty, mom." He complimented as he sat down on the chair next to her bed and desk.

"And you still look like a baby." She teased.

"Oh shut up... Do you feel any better?" He chuckled as he placed the flowers in the clear vase filled with water.

"The medicine tastes awful, but it's helping me. How's your brother?"

"He's fine, pretty busy with work." 

"What does he work as?" Now that made Mondo think, he just realized that he didn't know that about his brother.

"Sorry, I don't know."

"Oh... Well, I just hope he's not a Ghoul Investigator. That's practically a death sentence." 

"I know, he's just being so secretive."

"Now, do you have any sort of love interest?"

"Hurgh!-" Mondo choked on nothing in embarrassment, "...n-no mom! I don't like anyone!"

"Don't be like that, I know my youngest son."

"I don't have a girlfriend!"

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Agh!-"

"A crush?"

"Uhh..."

"Secret admirer?"

"Mom, please. You're embarrassing me!"

 

As Mondo pressed his head into his palms, Reiko leaned over to the side of her bed and hugged her son.

 

"It's alright, sweetheart. I'm only teasing." 

"I'm fine, mom."

"Thank you for coming to visit, Mondo. Next time, can you bring one of your friends? I'd like to get to know them."

"Sure thing, mom. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetheart." 

 

She gently caressed Mondo's face as she kissed his forehead.

 

* * *

 

After half a day, Mondo started walking in the direction of the deserted construction field where he, Kazuichi and Gundam train. The sounds of a girl in pain filled his ears, alerting him and making him instinctively run over to an alleyway.

 

As he ran to where sounds got louder, he immediately held his breath at the sight of a familiar silver haired girl being beaten up by three boys.

 

"Peko?" He asked under his breath, he quickly hid behind a wall to avoid being spotted.

"Ugh!" She cried out.

"This bitch is leaking so much blood out, she seems to look like the perfect fuck hole." One of the boy's said as they yanked on Peko's hair, making Mondo's eyes widen.

 

This girl had tried to kill him and his friend and there she was, getting the shit beaten out of her. Ghoul or not, Mondo just can't let a girl get hurt, "Hey!"

 

The boys turned their heads to look at Mondo, showing that all three of them were ghouls.

 

"The fuck you want, man?" The average sized boy growled.

"Yeah, unless you're just passing by, then you better fuck off." Another man said. Mondo gulped.

"Get the hell off her!"

"Oh what are you gonna do about it? She your girlfriend or something?"

"So what if she is? Just leave her alone or you're gonna fuck with a motherfucking gang leader!" Mondo punched his palm and cracked his knuckles.

"Hahaha!" Two of the ghouls laughed their asses off while the third looked at the gang leader with hungry eyes, making the latter freeze with fear and determination.

"It's not every day we get a free meal at an opportunity like this, feel free to join in if you want." The ghoul smirked maliciously and ran at the human.

 

Now Mondo could finally move. The moment the ghoul bared his teeth, Mondo thrusted his palm into the ghoul's nose. He almost cried out at the pain since the nose nearly broke a bone in his hand.

 

"Argh!" The ghoul stepped back as he grabbed his aching nose, "fuck!"

"Whoa, I did that?" Mondo asked himself before noticing the other ghouls getting ready to strike, "oh fuck, I did this to myself."

 

Mondo didn't hesitate to defend against one of the other two that came straight at him as he sucker punched the guy the same way Kazuichi does to him, feeling and hearing the audible cracks of his bones that made him wince in pain. The ghoul growled as he reached out to grab him but Mondo dodged the attack.

 

He gave a swift kick to the ghoul's back and knocked him forward. The remaining ghoul prepared himself as he stepped away from Peko. At that moment, Mondo found his chance and he quickly grabbed Peko and carried her in a princess position before running off.

 

He may be brash but he wasn't stupid, he knows that fighting three ghouls wasn't going let the odds be in his favour. Sweat ran down his forehead when he heard the three ghouls chasing after him.

 

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!" He practically screamed. With Peko in his arms, he was a little more slower when running.

 

He stopped running for a moment as he was exhausted and fell to his knees, still holding the girl to him. Mondo looked behind and saw that the ghouls were looking in one direction before fleeing, one of them saying, "fuck that, let's get out of here!"

 

Mondo looked over to the direction those ghouls were looking at and saw a shady looking man carrying a suitcase. His eyes widened when he remembered Byakuya's words.

 

_"If you see any shady people carrying some suitcases, stay out of their way. What they carry inside those cases always ends up either injuring or killing a ghoul."_

 

He quickly got up, staggering slightly and sneakily got away from the man into another darkened alleyway before looking back and watching as the strange man walked onto a more lit street, away from the teenagers.

 

"...ugh... Why did you save me?..." Peko muttered in pain, "... I almost killed you and your friend..."

"As if I'd let a girl get killed when I have the chance to help her," he replied before realising that he had no idea where to take Peko. The bloodied girl then pulled out a room key from her skirt pocket and held it on her stomach, "hey, I'm gonna take you back to your dorm."

"...y-young master..." She said barely above a whisper before falling unconscious.

 

Mondo quickly broke into a run and headed back to Hope's Peak, managing to get in under five minutes.

 

Without a doubt, he carried her to the dorms and checked every plate on it until he saw a pixilated picture of Peko. He took the key and opened the room, he saw how neat and organized the room was before placing Peko on her bed.

 

"Don't worry, Peko, I'll get someone who can help!" He promised as he ran back out of her room and closed the door.

 

Mondo needed some sort of medic to help Peko, but he sure as hell wasn't going to get Mikan, he's trusted way too many ghouls to do the same mistake twice.

 

_'Peko needs a medic, a nurse or something! Wait, that's right, Kazuichi bandaged me up before I met Mikan!'_

 

With not a second to spare, Mondo raced down the halls and ran back to where he was heading before a hand grabbed his jacket.

 

"There you are, Mondo Oowada!" The person he was looking for yelled in anger, "me and Gundam have been looking for you everywhere!"

"Kazuichi, I need your help!" Mondo rapidly stated before grabbing the pinkette's wrist and leading him back to the Academy.

"Whoa!" He cried as he was dragged all the way back to the dorms.

 

The moment they arrived at Peko's door, Kazuichi yanked his hand out of Mondo's grip. "What the hell, man?!"

"No time to explain, you need to help someone. She's a ghoul just like you." Kazuichi's expression went from angry to confused before looking at the picture on the door. He nodded and opened the door, neither of them expected a blond miniature sized boy attempt to hit them with a wooden sword.

"Wah!" Kazuichi screamed as he ducked and let Mondo take the blow for him.

"Oww!" The gang leader cried out as he fell to the ground while clutching his head. Kazuichi straightened his posture, reached out and grabbed Fuyuhiko's arms without a sweat being broken.

"Whassup Fuyuhiko! Can you stop attacking us- AHH!" The pinkette yelled the moment wooden sword was almost directed into his groin.

"Why the fuck are you here?! How the hell do you that Peko's a ghoul?!" Fuyuhiko interrogated, careful not to raise his voice too much.

 

"... young master..." Peko groaned in pain.

"Peko!" He cried out worriedly.

"... it's okay... He's helping me..." She explained slowly while pointing at Mondo before moaning in pain once more, making Kazuichi run over to her side.

 

Immediately, the mechanic demanded to be left alone with Peko, making both men leave the room and go into the gangster's dorm room.

 

"Sorry 'bout asking but... you're aware that Peko's a ghoul, right?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Well, aren't you uncomfortable with the idea of what she does to eat?"

"I let her eat the bastards that piss me off, in other words people who try to kidnap me or my sister, assholes who don't pay my family back. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone I'm close to, it's fine."

 

Fuyuhiko seemed pretty unsteady talking to another person about Peko.

 

"Anyways, I try to help her but with her young master crap, she just keeps getting hurt and she's more weak than ever."

"Sorry about that."

"Don't be, she may be a ghoul but I still owe her so much." 

 

* * *

 

At night, Fuyuhiko walked back from a convenient store with medicines to help assist Peko with her healing while Mondo and Kazuichi went back to Tanaka Café to grab more packages of flesh to help her.

 

The freckled boy didn't notice the masked figure creeping up behind him with a damp rag until it was pressed against his mouth and nose.

 

"Mmpfh!" He yelled as he struggled against the bare arms that held him hostage.

"Forgive me, Fuyuhiko-san..." The lustful voice whispered in his ears as his struggles started dying down, "...but you wouldn't come to my feast if I asked..."

 

* * *

 

 

"Seriously, you could've texted me that you were going to be delayed. I could've be sleeping with Gundam or playing Guitar Hero with Ibuki by now!" Kazuichi complained as he walked up the stairs with Mondo behind him, the both of them were carrying small packages of human flesh.

"I am so glad you're really a girl." The brunette muttered.

"What was that?"

"N-nothing!"

 

As the mechanic rolled his eyes, he turned the corner and walked to Peko's room. That's when Mondo noticed the folded paper peeking out of Fuyuhiko's door, it said 'read me, Oowada'.

 

He couldn't help but pick it up and read it.

 

_'Hello,_

_I just wanted to say that I have invited you for my dinner party tonight at the cathedral down town, it would be a pleasure if you arrived, I also brought Fuyuhiko with me. I would love to have the both of you for dinner._

_Mikan'_

 

At each sentence, Mondo's faced paled even more.

 

"Kazuichi," he called out, "I found this!" The pinkette snatched the letter and quickly read it.

"...damn it! Mikan's gone too far this time, I fucking kill her! Really convenient for no one else to read this and if they did, they chose not to do shit about it."

 

The stumbling in Peko's room attracted their attention as they opened the door and saw the girl holding her weapon while wearing a red nightgown and having her hair down.

 

"... where's... Young master?" She asked.

"Mikan took him." Kazuichi answered while glaring at the letter.

"...I need to save him..."

"In your condition, that'll be suicide!" Mondo stated, he didn't want any more people to die. Fukawa died, that brute at the coliseum died in front of him, Peko's not going to die because of a bitch.

"I don't care! Other people can die for all I care... But I'll give up my own life for my master!" Peko vowed as she balanced herself on her bamboo sword.

 

This girl was not kidding, and by the looks of it, neither was Kazuichi. Their glares were downright terrifying.

 

_'This is not going to end without blood being shed.'_


	11. Chapter 11

As Mondo helped Peko walk to the cathedral, Kazuichi remained in front of them the entire walk until they reached the stone wall belonging to such a building.

 

 _'Please just let this be a normal talk... I don't wanna see another ghoul fight...'_ The brunette thought as soft classical music played, it gave the trio an eerie, haunting feeling.

 

The mechanic of the group opened the door and continued the remainder of their journey, finding Mikan sitting on one of the benches while the unconscious body of Fuyuhiko layed on the table ahead.

 

"Ah... O-oowada-kun," the nurse said as she turned her head around, "I thought you w-wouldn't come..." She then took notice of the other two people, "oh... Y-you brought company..."

"...release my young master this instant!" Peko yelled as she balanced herself with the bamboo sword. Mikan's face didn't waver as she got up from the bench, walked over to a radio besides the table and turned it off before going in front of it.

"B-but Peko... He's the  _guest of honor_..." The timid tone in her voice that hid her lust didn't fail to make Mondo shudder, "...you and I both know you c-can't protect him forever..."

 

The silver haired girl couldn't take it anymore, she tossed her sword to Mondo before running towards the nurse, only to miss when Mikan jumped out of the way.

 

Peko glared at the girl. Mikan smirked as she landed a couple of steps away from her. The moment she was about to attack once again, Kazuichi called out to Mikan.

 

 

"That's enough, Mikan," Kazuichi snarled, kakugan coming to life as his kagune began to unravel (no pun intended), "you and I have unfinished business!"

"W-wha... What did I do?..." She asked with her usual voice, her face plastered with a look of confusion and fear.

 

The mechanic didn't hesitate to run towards the girl and his kagune clashed with a sharp, lavender koukaku that protruded from her lower shoulder and coiled around her neck and arms.

"...holy shit..." Mondo whispered under his breath at the disfigured sight of the nurse's kagune.

 

It was very obvious that Kazuichi had the advantage due to the different kagune types in his body but Mikan was more adapted to using her kagune as she has always had koukaku since she was born, thus it didn't feel as heavy as the normal kagune and her attacks were more swift and fast, unlike Kazuichi's. To help the pinkette, Peko began to attack the nurse from behind with as much strength as she could muster but was stopped by a sudden kick that knocked her to the row of benches and pierced her body with splinters as she was still weakened.

 

Mondo couldn't just stand there and do nothing. With a strong grip, he pulled out the sword and tossed itd holster aside, ready to attack at any moment but he wasn't going to do so right now.  _'The moment will come soon, I've seen shit like this back with the gang,'_ he thought,  _'it's almost there... It's almost there...'_

 

He felt his hands shake as his personal rule suddenly popped up into his brain:  _never hit a woman_. Like earlier that day with Peko when he couldn't leave her getting beaten up, Mondo just couldn't hang on to the idea of striking Mikan with the sword in his hands. His morals were too strong.

 

"You fucking bitch!!!" Kazuichi yelled through gritted teeth as he ran straight at the nurse.

"Why are you fighting me?!" Mikan scowled as she swiped her kagune at Kazuichi's face and thrown him away from her, "I had never done anything to you!"

 

Kazuichi's eyes widened in shock, before it turned into despair and rage.

 

He threw a punch after he began running, which was immediately deflected, before he aimed his upper kagune towards her before it slashed down. The former prisoner brought out his Bikaku kagune and swiped at her feet.

 

Mikan pushed herself away and landed just above Fuyuhiko. She smirked as she leaned down and gently ran a hand through the gangster's fluffy hair, lifting his head up and bearing his throat to her.

 

 _ **Crash!**_  

 

Mikan looked up in shock as glass descended down and a kick to the face sent her flying to the other side of the room and away from the weakened human. Mondo looked back towards the new figure in the room and he felt his eyes widen with surprise as the figure pulled back the hood on their green hoodie.

 

"Skipping to the main course already... I should've known," Byakuya stated as he walked to Kazuichi's side, "you were always an impatient person."

"D-dude, how'd ya find us?" The mechanic asked, as if he didn't take notice of Byakuya's average clothing.

"The tracking device you put on Oowada's jacket."

"Oh!"

"You put a tracking device on me?! What the fuck?!" Mondo yelled as he looked behind him and patted his hand down on his pockets.

"I'll explain later, but we got a bitch that's all of our 99 problems." Kazuichi responded as he pointed at the injured girl.

 

Mikan slowly pushed herself off the part of the floor stained with her blood, shaking as blood ran down her face.

 

"W-where are my manners?... I _am_ impatient, p-please forgive me for my existence!" She cried exaggeratively as she faced the others from a far, revealing a huge cut across her face that went through her eyes but it was already starting to heal.

 

Mondo's mouth curled as he gritted his teeth as he finally saw an opportunity to attack the bitch in front of him but he just couldn't move. He missed this moment to wound Mikan and give his ghoul allies a higher chance of beating her but how could he do so without being distracted by such a gruesome wound.

 

Mikan threw herself at Byakuya and Kazuichi with her kagune bare and open, the blonde was quick to avoid the attack, however, the pinkette was too slow but he was expecting his stomach to be impaled.

 

"Agh!..." he shouted with a mouthful of blood spilling onto Mikan's dress. She smirked maliciously as she pushed it in deeper before violently yanking it out. Kazuichi's body fell to the floor, completely limp. Mondo's eyes widened in horror, he may be a violent gang leader but he had never seen wounds like this; Mondo's only 17 for crying out loud and he just watched someone get impaled before his eyes and now they're lying there with a gaping hole in his stomach, having their insides dripping out. 

 

 _'M-Mikan... That's what she can do... She'll kill me! She'll kill Kazuichi and Peko if I don't do something,'_   Mondo drafted his eyes to look at Byakuya, who still wasn't using his kagune,,  _'he must be really strong if he can fight without his kagune, but then there's me... I'm just a human...What_ _will she do if she wins this? Will she go for the rest of Tanaka Café? And get... Taka...  if Mikan gets her hands on him... I'll... I'll...'_ a sudden overwhelming urge to fight filled Mondo, his eyes narrowed to the smallest, angriest slit that he had as he gripped the sword tightly.

 

"You've been eating human food, haven't you- uwah!" Mikan began as she raised her kagune once more over Kazuichi but groaned when she felt a sword slashing her back and nape before she could sink it in once again.

"Don't fucking touch them!" Mondo cried, turning to look back at Byakuya. For once, the blonde gave him an emotion that wasn't boredom, rage or any other negative emotions, it was amazement - for about 2.5 seconds.

 

"Oowada, look out!" He snapped, only giving Mondo a chance to look behind him and get an unexpected kick to his back, throwing him straight into Byakuya.

 

Byakuya hit the wall as his body broke Mondo's fall. The younger man could've sworn he heard a couple of bones breaking on impact.

 

"Pathetic..." Mikan muttered as Byakuya shoved the still breathing body off him. The nurse snickered, her face completely healed now.

 

Byakuya snarled, bearing his teeth as he ran in what seemed to be only 1.5 seconds, throwing his arms out at the nurse, who avoided his punches with ease. Mondo cringed when he saw Mikan give the heir a sharp punch to the gut that he quickly recovered from, despite the blood dripping from his lips and swung a kick to the girl's head. However, since he underestimated her at this moment, Mikan stopped his leg with just a raise of her arm.

 

The blonde's eyes widened as they drifted to the arm and back to Mikan as her fingers wrapped around his ankle, she straightened her body and pulled his leg out before giving a strong punch to his knee, immediately breaking it as it bent in the wrong way unnaturally.

 

Mondo cringed so hard the moment when Byakuya let out that bloodcurdling scream as the bones gave a sickening crunch. His body couldn't thrash in time as Mikan then drove her fist into Byakuya's jaw and knocked him down.

 

Byakuya's body fell to the floor, he tried his best not to squirm in pain when Mikan leant closer to him.

 

"You know I d-don't like hurting people I love." She said with a few tears in her eyes.

 _'You have a funny way of showing it.'_ the half-ghoul thought, but instead of speaking, he gave his reply crystal clear by spitting blood at her face.

 

The girl smirked as her hand wiped the blood and she brought her fingers to her mouth, moaning at the taste.

 

"Ahh... You taste so delicious..." She said with clouded eyes before kicking Byakuya further away from her to prevent herself from eating him, "any ghoul should know that you can't beat another without their kagune."

 

Once she had regained her composure, Mikan continued to walk over to Fuyuhiko.

 

Mondo looked at Byakuya's form and crawled as quickly as he could to grab and help the boy, even when all he did was threaten him in the last week.

 

The moment she reached the boy, Mikan took it into her hands to start removing the gangster's shirt, only to stop when she saw a pink scar on the right shoulder. A bite mark. "What?... How awful..." She spat with a look of distaste and pity.

 

Weakly, Peko balanced herself on the palm of her bloodied hands.

 

"...young master..."

 

* * *

 

_"Takaaki, we can't just leave her..." A woman cradling a cooing baby in her arms._

_"We can't do anything now, Hagika. If my father didn't make it obvious that he was a ghoul, then we wouldn't be forced into hiding." The raven haired man stated as he double checked the streets._

 

_Hagika looked down at her child in sadness. She didn't want her first born daughter to live in fear of the doves but she didn't want to give her up either._

 

_"I found this family with plenty of money, yakuzas," Hagika's head perked up at the words, Takaaki continued talking, "they recently just had a child so she won't be alone."_

 

_At those words, the brunette mother began to release her tears before being embraced by her husband._

 

_"I know... I don't want this but it's better for her to be safe." He leaned down to his daughter and kissed her forehead._

 

_The child was placed on the marble doorstep of the fancy house and out of the hands of her mother. She did the same action as Takaaki and whispered, "come home when you remember, my dear."_

 

_She gave silent sobs as Takaaki placed a piece of paper on the baby's blanket, with a name for the child with their choice of a first name and made up last name: Peko Pekoyama._

 

_"Over here, men!" The strict voice shouted from a distance with the sound of quinques being released from a suitcase._

_"Hagika! Hurry!" Takaaki demanded as he grabbed his wife's wrist and ran as fast as any ghoul with a bikaku could go, determined to take the ghoul investigators away from their child._

 

_The child began crying at the loss of her parents, wherever they were. The crying alerted one of the people inside and once they opened the door, they saw the sobbing baby._

 

* * *

 

_The men who had grabbed the children shoved them into the back of their car and ordered them to stay quiet as they drove further away from their home._

 

_"P-Peko..." A young Fuyuhiko whimpered while curling up closer to Peko, "I'm scared..."_

_"Do not worry, master Fuyuhiko, I will do something." She promised. Peko had found out that she needed to keep her secret secret when she realised that eating human food wasn't giving her any energy at all, so one day she went for a walk at the age of six and a half and a man who intended to hurt the family who took her in appeared and her instincts went wild._

 

_She knew that she couldn't let herself been seen in its ghoul side. Due to the news on the T.V, she felt hatred and fear towards the CCG._

 

_But worst of all, if her secret was found out, then she wouldn't be able to see Fuyuhiko anymore. She had to protect him but how?_

 

_"Master. Close your eyes." She instructed as quietly as possible._

_"What?" He asked._

_"Just trust me, I don't want you to hate me if you see." She whispered, taking a breath of relief when Fuyuhiko shut his eyes._

 

 _She was only 11 and Fuyuhiko 10 and she didn't know what happens when a ghoul first uses their kagune when they're not of age_ _but she had no choice at the moment. She almost screamed when it sprouted out and slashed the kidnappers in the throat and chest._

 

_Once the car slowly slid to a stop, Peko's kagune retracted itself back into her body and she turned to see Fuyuhiko, eyes still shut._

 

_"Master, you can open your eyes now, " she said, he opened them and had them widen at the sight of Peko's eyes and bloodied clothes. He rubbed them to check if what he saw was real but only saw the red clothes still there, "let's go home."_

 

* * *

 

_"Ugh!" She groaned as her hands fisted the sheets, "d-damn you, Oowada!"_

 

_The pain of hunger was becoming more unbearable for her. She had gone to her dormitory as fast as she could, it was miracle she went without being seen._

 

_The door then opened before closing again. Fuyuhiko muttered before calling out to Peko._

_"Peko, where the hell were you? I didn't see you in class- Holy shit!" He explained when he saw Peko's weakened form._

_"Y-young master..." She said as her scleras turned black again, "I need meat!!!"_

 

_Peko didn't hesitate to grab the smaller boy and crouch above him. She beared her teeth as the fearful expression on his face made her get excited until..._

 

_"Agh!... It hurts..." She clutched her abdomen in pain. Fuyuhiko sat upright, looking at her in concern. Peko... Was a ghoul, he looked down at his clothes._

_"Here," he said as he bared a shoulder to her. The blonde gritted his teeth when a sharp bite came down and blood began dripping down and stained his shirt, "P-Peko, why didn't you tell me?"_

_"I didn't want... You to hate me. You would've turned me in to the CCG."_

_"Like shit that's going to happen. I need you with me and I never want to lose you. That would just be worse than death."_

_"Y-young master."_

_"And I told you to stop with that 'master' crap, just call me Fuyuhiko... When we're not in public."_

 

* * *

 

In a spurge of rage and determination, Peko felt a rush of adrenaline and ran as fast as she could if her wounded body allowed it.

 

"RELEASE FUYUHIKO THIS INSTANT!" The silver haired girl yelled as her cyan coloured kagune erupted from her tailbone and swung right into Mikan and knocked the girl to the floor.

 

Peko didn't expect the other girl to swipe her kagune through her leg and take her down with that one blow.

 

"You're... Supposed to be  _dead_!" She roared as she began to repeatedly stab Peko's body, painting the grey floors red.

 

Mondo helped Byakuya sit up, they both looked at each other and to everyone. Seeing how weakened the half-ghoul was, the gang leader got an idea that made him shudder.

 

"Byakuya," the latter turned to face the brunette, who pulled up the sleeve on his left arm, "eat this."

"What?..." Byakuya looked at him as if he were crazy, but the flesh on Mondo's arm made his eyes flare up.

"Eat my flesh. You need it." Mondo turned his head away so he could avoid looking at what would happen next.

"...Oowada, people will notice-" 

"Just eat it!" He retorted, his arm was shaking.

"But..."

"Listen Byakuya, Peko and Kazuichi are definitely going to die like this. I can't do anything like you guys because I'm nothing more than a human, like you said," The statement made Byakuya's eyes widen slightly, he was content to see that Mondo had some backbone, "but you are a ghoul, like Ibuki said you're stronger than normal ghouls. You can kill her if you try but you need your strength. So eat!"

"...f-fine," the blonde raised his hand to his face and took off his glasses, "hold onto these for me."

"Uh oh..." Mondo could tell that when someone takes off their glasses in a serious situation, you could tell that shit is about to go down.

 

Byakuya gulped in hesitation before pulling the arm closer to him.

 

"Brace yourself..." He whispered. Byakuya sunk his teeth into the arm and blood stained his lips before pulling his head away only three inches away, ripping flesh from bone.

"Ngh!.." Mondo whimpered in pain, trying not to scream, the bite reminded him how anyone would bite down into an apple. Byakuya brought his teeth down once more and swallowed the blood and skin.

 

Two.

 

Only two bites, but it was enough to leave Mondo in agony and yet he managed to tolerate it. He took a glance at Byakuya and saw him standing up before running in a flash and left Mikan with bleeding scratches.  _'S...so fast...'_

 

"Didn't you say something about hating to hurt the people you love?" The blonde asked as red, blue and black began descending from his shoulders, "what if they were to hurt you?"

"...Eek!" Mikan's face turned from sadistic to scared shitless at Byakuya's venomous tone, with it having a bit of a sweet texture to his voice and making him all the more terrifying.

 

The sight of the kagune was just so mesmerising, it danced like fire and it looked like wings of a butterfly... Or moth...

 

"I've never seen Togami's kagune..." He whispered.

 

A mix of indigo, dark red and black swirled around as it changed into its crystalised form before shattering once again, crystals flying in every direction.

 

They slashed Mikan's body once again, making her step back away and fall over Kazuichi's form.

 

"Good job, Byakuya!" He cheered as the hole in his stomach began healing. Mikan scowled before trying to get away from the pinkette, not expecting the mechanic to grab her ankle and toss her into the air.

 

Byakuya jumped up (more like flew up) and gave a violent kick straight to Mikan's face that made her jaw fly off while throwing her body back to the ground and making dust fly up.

 

As he gently landed on the floor and straightened himself, Byakuya took large steps towards his former friend and glowered at her bloodied form with visible bones appearing out of her chest and back.

 

Mikan flinched in pain as she tried to get on her knees but Byakuya prevented her by pressing his foot on her back, keeping her immobilised with her front side facing the floor.

 

"...A..era.." She tried speaking but it came out as a mumbled groan, however, Byakuya understood what she was trying to say and he pressed his foot harder on her back, crushing her ribs and spine.

"Shut up..."

 

In his mind, Byakuya thought that the girl has never felt true pain before, despite thinking he had killed her when he rescued Masaru and Gundam had rescued Kazuichi, so he grabbed both of Mikan's wrists and pulled her arms behind her while his leg became straight in an instant, ripping Mikan's arms right off.

 

The screams bounced off the wall as blood spilt everywhere, and all Mikan could do was writhe in agony. As her cries began dying down, the person she felt affection to turned their attention to the pinkette in the room, who was only a few blocks away from them.

 

"Kazuichi..." Byakuya called out, "do what you want..." Mikan's eyes widened in fear when the sentence went through her ears, the half-ghoul was leaving her like this so the mechanic could kill her!

"(...No!... Please, K-Kazuichi...)" She tried to beg, only to have her pleads ignored when the latter began chuckling. Chuckles turned into laughter... Psychotic laughter. Kazuichi started running, "(I'm sorry... JUST FORGIVE ME, KAZU-)"

 

Her sentence was paused and was soon finished when her head hit the wall and began rolling.

 

Kazuichi continued laughing maniacally, taking short pauses when his joy turned into sadness and his laughter turned into sobs to make way for the tears.

 

 _'Let it out, Kazuichi,'_ Byakuya thought as he stepped away from the body,  _'the betrayal and stress of hiding your feelings took its toll on you.'_

 

"Young... Master..." The swordswoman panted as she dragged herself on top of Fuyuhiko to hug him. Once she was above him, she nuzzled her face into his neck but stopped when she heard a fiery burst behind her.

 

"Peko. Move out of the way." Byakuya demanded with a soft voice like silk, it was terrifying in all sorts. Peko slowly turned around and gave him a sad look.

"Byakuya, don't," Mondo called out, still clutching his bleeding arm, "you don't have to do that. Fuyuhiko and I are alike, you didn't kill me-"

"Because I was ordered not to." The blonde interrupted.

"That's not my point! I've seen you hanging out with some of our friends, Naegi, Celestia, Kirigiri... If they were in that position in front of you, would you still kill them?!"

" **Why the fuck would you think I'd care about them in the first place?!** " He snapped, making Mondo shut up in shock. Byakuya's fists were clenched tightly that his nails pierced his skin in anger, "their existence means  _nothing_ to me! It's the ones I actually care about that I'd protect, I'm not risking another human knowing my secret!"

 

The wing-like kagune hardened itself and broke again, swiftly throwing shards at Fuyuhiko but Peko blocked it with her own body, screaming as pain overwhelmed her and knocked her down next to the boy she loved. Mondo lowered his head in disappointment.

 

Fuyuhiko sat up and pulled the blindfold off his head and turned to see Byakuya walking closer, but it was really his kagune that snatched his attention.

 

It was absolutely stunning, even Fuyuhiko couldn't deny that the sight was purely...

"...beautiful..."

 

The words made the heir freeze on the spot, Mondo lifted up his head in confusion.

 

Byakuya stayed still in shock, his eyes blinked slowly as if to process what the yakuza just said.

 

Fuyuhiko noticed that Byakuya's eyes where getting shinier with producing tears.

 

"What's that supposed to mean?..." He asked, stepping away before running out of the cathedral, his kagune still dancing behind him.

 

As he ran past the gang leader, Mondo felt heat pass when he saw the Ukaku kagune in a closer view, like the heat of a flame.

 

Mondo then turned to look at Kazuichi, who got up and walked over to the gang leader.

 

"You may want to take Peko and Fuyuhiko out of here for a moment. Things are going to get a little more ugly," Kazuichi then took out two packages of flesh, "give this to Peko so she won't look suspicious when going to Tanaka Café."

"Do I even want to know what you're going to do with the body?"

"No." Kazuichi replied, Mondo nodded and took the packages before getting his injured arm snatched. The pinkette looked at it and saw a limp piece of skin, he didn't hesitate to rip it off and cause more pain to Mondo.

"Argh!" He cried.

"Sorry. You'll need stitches, I'll fix that arm for you when I finish here."

 

Mondo nodded while blinking away tears of pain and went to help Fuyuhiko with Peko's unconscious body.

 

As they went through the doors, Mondo looked back and saw Kazuichi still staring at them until the door closed.

 

Mondo looked up at the starry sky to breathe but he couldn't hold it in his lungs as he bent over and threw up the undigested parts of his lunch. If he had perfect vision, Mondo would've found Byakuya sitting on the roof of the cathedral, with his head buried in his arms and legs.

 

Byakuya remained quiet in thought.

 

"I'm beautiful?..." He asked to no one in particular, "I'm a ghoul, I'm supposed to be feared..."

 

At the truth of his words, Byakuya swung his fist into the wall besides him and didn't flinch when he felt it breaking apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry to not say this earlier, but some of the things you have read in the first 11 chapters are of my own creation.
> 
> One of them is that humans are able to eat whatever is produced from coffee if they keep eating humans.
> 
> I'm sorry if this caused some trouble, but I will be using End Notes more often to inform my readers


	12. Love Comforts One At Their Saddest Moments

Kiyotaka kept glancing outside the window, it had been an hour and a half since Gundam came back alone without Kazuichi and Mondo and he was getting more worried about his crush.

 

The raven always smiled at that memory whenever he felt down. He remembered seeing Mondo and feeling some sort of... spark that made him drawn to the gang leader, of course he thought it was only to lecture him and give him detentions, but it was entirely different.

 

They always argued about the pettiest things, and Kiyotaka wasn't blind that Mondo was involved whenever spit balls were thrown at him. And then a day with the latter in detention caused Kiyotaka to tell Mondo why he was so 'stuck up' but he used the fake backstory he had in order to keep his ghoul identity hidden.

 

And the human believed it. That made Mondo tell Kiyotaka the reason why he was in a gang. After a few compliments and tears being shed, they were friends.

 

Kiyotaka began to ease up and be careful with what he said around people, even though Sayaka and Byakuya have been trying to help him out.

 

**

_"Come on, Kiyotaka. I know you are completely moral and you have your own opinions but you have to let people in and believe that you're a human." Sayaka politely insisted as she tried to help him be more sociable._

_"I see no point in doing such things to other humans." The raven blandly responded._

_"But Kiyotaka, if you stay loud and persistent about the whole class studying, then no one will be your friend, and since me and Byakuya have to keep our covers from being blown, you'll be all alone at school."_

_"Sayaka, there's no point in convincing him," Byakuya put a hand on the girl's shoulder, "he's either not going to have any friends at all in the school or he's going to break every moral rule he made for himself, which is impossible."_

_"B-but... People will start bullying him, saying that he's invisible. People will forget about him." Sayaka said as she held the blonde's hands._

_"It's alright, Maizono-chan, I'm used to being forgotten." The red eyed boy gave a smile to hide the sadness in his voice._

**

 

They couldn't hang out because it would raise suspicion, however Sayaka was quick to make friends with the other classmates since she was really popular, Byakuya got unwanted attention from Touko and Kiyotaka... He seemed to weird everybody out.

 

The bell above the door rang and Kiyotaka and Gundam whipped their heads around to see Mondo helping Fuyuhiko carry Peko inside.

 

"Kyoudai! You're safe!" The raven exclaimed happily before fully noticing Peko, "And Peko! W-what happened?"

"You're her friend?" Mondo asked.

"S-she and I are siblings," Kiyotaka responded after looking at Fuyuhiko, "Peko lives with the Kuzuryuu family because my parents gave her up to protect her from the Doves... I'll talk to you later about that."

"Oh... Uh, Alright."

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just... I thought I saw some similarities between you." At that sentence, Kiyotaka smiled.

 

"Yeah, incase you haven't noticed, my girlfriend is currently losing a shit tone of blood!" Fuyuhiko yelled.

"Girlfriend? I thought you told me that you weren't going to date until you were 25!" Kiyotaka growled.

"Well I fucking lied! Now are you going to fucking help her or what?"

 

Kiyotaka immediately nodded and reached to grab Peko. Once she was in his arms, her brother almost ran up the stairs and kicked the door to the living room wide open before placing her on the couch.

 

Peko gave a small groan as she slightly stirred. Her brother ran his fingers through her hair to calm her as he took off her glasses.

 

"Have you seen Kazuichi?" Gundam asked as he turned to the two humans.

"Yeah, he stayed behind with Mikan's corpse." The gang leader answered.

"He managed to kill the she-demon?"

"With the help of that Utimate Heir in the first year." Fuyuhiko said with his arms crossed.

 

Kiyotaka's eyebrows furrowed in suspicion as he automatically sniffed the air, almost coiling away when he smelt blood... Coming from Mondo.

 

The red eyes moved around as they analysed Mondo, stopping when he saw the right hand holding the left arm close to him as if he were in pain, he was also holding a pair of glasses. They belonged to Byakuya.

 

"Kyoudai... Show me your arm." He said while holding out his hand.

"W-why?"

"I want to see it." Hesitantly, Mondo began to raise his right arm, "the other one!"

 

Seeing that he was cornered, Mondo held out his left arm and flinched when Kiyotaka gently took hold of it.

 

Kiyotaka slapped a hand against his mouth in horror once he pulled up the sleeve.

 "M-Mondo... What happened?..." 

"Byakuya bit me. He was weak and he couldn't fight Mikan properly if I didn't-"

"That bloody Ukaku... Don't worry, I'll be having  _a chat_  with him when he gets here. Where is he?" He asked throughout clenched teeth.

"I have no idea where he went."

"Blast. Oh well, I've got Peko to help first."

 

He dashed back to the silver haired girl with a wet cloth and began to clean the blood off of her.

 

_'How could Byakuya hurt MY Kyoudai? He knows perfectly well I love him and I don't want to see him harmed!'_

 

Byakuya had always warned him about not getting to close to a human, or a ghoul will be spilling all their secrets and they'll be dead in an instant, but Kiyotaka had ignored him. Mondo was precious to him and he didn't want to lose him... Ever.

 

* * *

 

"We got an investigation!" Kyouko said formally as Daiya drove the van in the direction to the abandoned cathedral, she grabbed her phone and yelled into it, "Unknown amount of ghouls, we'll need back up immediately!"

"Wait! How many ghouls?" He asked.

"Witness didn't confirm, but he gave the description of what would seem to be three ghouls." 

"Call Mr Tsubasa, we need enough brilliant minds with us to take down these beasts!"

"On it."

 

Daiya continued his drive to the cathedral as Kyouko almost instantly finished her phone call. The high school student stepped out of the van, gripping her quinque in a suitcase firmly as she got closer to the crime scene.

 

Her eyes hardened as they caught sight of blood, destroyed benches and cracked walls. No sign of ghouls but state of the room shows that there was what seemed to be a fight. She saw more blood that painted the walls and it was still wet, meaning that it happened moments ago. But... There was  _too much_  blood for just victim, whoever they were.

 

Speaking of which, she turned her body around to look behind her but saw blood and debris. Suspicious...

 

"Kirigiri, what is- oh..." Daiya paused to put a hand over his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting. He recomposed himself before walking over to his partner's side.

 

Kyouko walked around a bit more to see if there was any more evidence but there was one thing that was troubling her.

 

"Where's the body?" She thought out loud.

"I... Didn't notice that..." Daiya informed her.

 

The lavender eyes looked towards the floor incase of any outline of hair strands, or anything that could be considered DNA other than the mixed up blood.

 

Kyouko didn't care why something like this could happen, she wanted ghouls dead and gone.

 

* * *

 

 

Kiyotaka wiped a hand over his brow as Peko was almost fully healed, he turned to face Mondo and smiled.

 

The bell rang from downstairs, and the familiar scent didn't have to make Kiyotaka guess who it was. He walked over to stand in the direction of the door.

 

Kazuichi burst through as he held Byakuya's wrist.

 

"Kazuichi! My beloved! You are safe." Gundam smiled and breathed happy as he hugged his pinkette lover.

 

Both heir and mechanic were bloody and ruffled up, and in Kazuichi's other hand...

 

"Oh my fucking god, did you just take her corpse with you?" Fuyuhiko asked while covering his nose, "a-and what about the evidence? The blood will give you away, it's DNA!"

"The blood was mixed together, it won't give a direct match and cause whatever transmitter they're using to malfunction. And the corpse is for Gundam."

"Why him?"

"Since you're a part of the group now, you'll find out later."

 

"Byakuya." Kiyotaka called out, getting everyone's attention, "I thought you said you would  _never_  harm him."

"Oowada, give me my glasses." Byakuya turned away from the conversation and looked at Mondo. The blonde no longer wore his hoodie, instead it was in his hand and what he wore now was the usual white buttoned shirt he wore with his rich atture; his eyes were red from crying and the hand he was holding out for his glasses was slightly shaken. As the gang leader went to return the essential accessory, Kiyotaka began to yell.

"Don't avoid this topic,  _Togami_!"

"So what? I bit him, big deal(!) Didn't he tell you he offered it to me?"

"Wha... W-well, you should've refused!"

"I did, but he kept insisting and now I'm having to deal with all this bullshit!" Kiyotaka flinched slightly at the harsh words used.

"Language..." The raven sighed, seeing no reason for him to physically punish Byakuya. Besides, doing something like that would make Mondo's opinion about him change completely and result in more fear than love, "alright, I'll let this slide  _for now_. However, I won't take any other situation that involves Mondo like this lightly."

"Thank you." Byakuya said with a breath as he wiped a sleeve over his bloody mouth to wipe it away.

 

Kiyotaka's eyes still flared with rage as they narrowed down into slits, continuously following at Byakuya to the point were he got uncomfortable. The blonde turned back to grab his glasses, aware of the daggers being thrown at him.

 

His fingers barely even touched Mondo's and Kiyotaka got even more fired up and his body tensed all over. Mondo gave a small glance and watched as the crimson eyes he fell in love with turn into raging balls of fire.

 

"I'm serious, Byakuya. I will take matters into my own hands if you harm him again."

"I understand, Taka."

 

The door on the other side of the room opened slightly, resulting in everyone to look at Masaru in pyjamas entering the room.

 

"Taka-Bro, why is there yelling?" He muttered tiredly as he rubbed his eyes.

"Masaru, what are you doing here?" Byakuya asked, concerned, "I thought Ibuki would've brought you home."

"I may have bribed her into letting me sleepover here." He said with a cheeky grin.

"Sleepover? Masaru, you have another sleepover coming up this Friday," Byakuya paused once he saw how wide Masaru's eyes were to make him reconsider, "oh, can those eyes get any bigger(?) Fine, just for tonight. And your friends will sleepover here too under my supervision."

"Yay!" He cheered, suddenly wide awake since he  _is_  a pre-teen.

 

Kiyotaka gave a smile at the relationship between Masaru and Byakuya, he could remember when Masaru first arrived at Tanaka Café with his mother. The redhead kid took an immediate liking to Byakuya and they have been inseparable ever since, but he wasn't told everything as to why Byakuya had legally adopted Masaru as his brother and what was told to him was sure to be a fake description.

 

He then looked back at Mondo, seeing that Kazuichi was already getting out a needle and wire to stitch the wound on his patient's arm. He couldn't help but dash to the opportunity.

 

"U-umm, Kyoudai... I-if you want, I could... H-hold... C-comfort you while your arm is getting stitches." The raven stuttered with a heavy blush across his cheeks.

"Uhh, s-sure!" Mondo agreed, a small blush just barely seen.

 

Kiyotaka sat down next to the chair Mondo was sitting in and hesitantly held out a hand for him to take. The brunette gave a smile with a hint of pink as he held his hand.

 

"Hey Taka, you've got the arm I need to stitch." Kazuichi said with a poker face.

"Oh! Sorry," Kiyotaka gave an apologetic smile before his face hardened once again, " _stitch him right._ "

 

Kazuichi nodded while gulping down his need to say 'fuck off', he wasn't scared of Kiyotaka or what he would do to him, he's been through worse than that.

 

"Sure. Gundam, pass me the disinfectant." He demanded, getting the item he wanted almost immediately, "thank you~ Mondo, this will hurt a lot more than how Byakuya bit into ya' arm." Byakuya quickly went went out of the room with Masaru in tow, he didn't want a scene like this to stir up Masaru's growing taste for human flesh and blood when he was so young. He quickly shut the door as quietly as possible and took Masaru over to another room.

"Okay- AGH! Ngah!" The gang leader cried as Kazuichi took him by surprise. Fuyuhiko covered Peko's ear to keep her from waking up and Kiyotaka barely felt pain as his hand was squeezed to death. Sure, Mondo had a high pain tolerance but he could never handle the bitter sting of disinfectant, "Ack!"

"There! Now the best part." Kazuichi replied as he got the needle, "stay still for this."

"W-wait, waitwaitwait- ouch! Argh!" The brunette tried to reason as the needle went through his skin but all he could do was bite onto his bottom lip.

 

Kiyotaka aimed a glare at the pinkette for his fast ways, he didn't want Mondo to be in anymore pain but Kazuichi's methods were the opposite of what the moral boy wanted.

 

Relieved, Kazuichi stepped up and gave the okay for Fuyuhiko to take their hands off Peko's ears and for Byakuya to come back in without Masaru, who remained in the other room. Mondo panted as Kiyotaka wiped tiny drops from his eyes.

 

"There...  That wasn't so bad, was it?" Kazuichi said, taking small breathers through his sentence before grabbing some fresh bandages from a cupboard. He quickly wrapped it around Mondo's arm, and to add the finishing touch, the pinkette got a small tablecloth tied it and put it over Mondo's arm and neck as a sling, "all you have to do now is say that you attempted a stunt on your motorcycle but failed when people ask."

"Y-yeah..." Mondo agreed in pain. He looked down at the wrapped injury with a soft look, how was he going to explain a deep bite mark to Daiya?

 

Fuyuhiko turned around to look at Mikan's discarded body, her mangled form all scraped and ruined.

"Hey, you said that you were going to do something with her body, weren't ya?" He asked aloud to get everyone's attention.

 

Kazuichi got up and strived towards the body, poking what was left of the chest with his finger.

 

"Yes Fuyuhiko, we are going to do something with it. As you see, I brought the body for Gundam." The pinkette exclaimed aloud for everyone to hear.

"Why him?"

"Well Gundam's mother, the owner, is a human and when she took us in, she decided to test out how one of us would react to eating another ghoul," Kazuichi turned to look back at Gundam, seeing him space out with his hamsters, "Gundam was the one who volunteered to do so, doing the killing and consuming."

"What happened next?" Mondo asked quietly, worried about the answer.

"His reactions were... Violent and severe. In fact, they were so violent that Gundam had to be in chains and far away from us whenever we would do it again but they usually just happen moments after he has eaten the body."

"If his reactions are so bad, then why do you keep doing it?" Fuyuhiko scowled.

"Because every time he did it, his kagune was different. As if it had developed into a secondary form..." Kazuichi being to mumble, looking down at the floor with sad eyes at the thought of Gundam going through this procedure again.

"Amaya told us that this could possibly be essential for the ghouls who work here, although she hated the idea of Gundam going through pain again," the voice of Byakuya disrupted Kazuichi once he saw that the pinkette was becoming uncontrollable with the current topic of conversation, "we only do this once a month and Gundam still hasn't done it in this one."

 

Gundam stood up, placed a gentle hand on his lover's shoulder and looking tenderly into his eyes.

"You don't have to fear for my well being, my Dark Love," he whispered with care, using his hand to lift Kazuichi's chin with his bandaged finger, "it is normally you who I fear for when this ritual happens," He pressed a small kiss to the mechanic's lips before going and picking up the body, "Let us leave, the ritual will begin soon." He said sternly.

 

* * *

 

Kazuichi, Fuyuhiko, Kiyotaka and Mondo stood behind a metal fence that kept them in a safe range from Gundam at the top of a mountain while Byakuya locked firm chains to the other half-ghoul's limbs that kept the occultist at the bottom of the mountain. The chains were from the CCG whenever they attempted to detain a ghoul and the heir was the one who stole them when no one left the vehicle attended to.

 

While watching, Mondo turned to look at Kiyotaka.

"Hey Taka, are you going to tell me about Peko being your sister?" He asked, he tried not to be blunt but ultimately failed.

"Ah, yes," Kiyotaka quickly cleared his throat and faced his crush, "Peko is my older sister by one year. Our parents had to give her up as my grandfather caused the infamous scandal that exposed our family, that story you know. So then my sister had to be left on the doorstep of another family and we never met each other for 17 years, 18 on Peko's behalf."

"Well, if you never knew each other then how did you find out?"

"My parents had a picture of her when she was an infant, they said that her eyes were like mine and she would be just as determined as me to accomplish a goal in life. For her, it's protecting Fuyuhiko. She does love him after all."

"What's yours?" Mondo asked with a smile, noticing how Kiyotaka blushed timidly.

"W-well, I..."  _I want to have you by my side, knowing that I'll always love and protect you, even if we have our disagreements._ "...I want to be the prime minister and try to bring peace with ghoul and human kind." He partially lied.

 

Mondo shuffled himself closer to the moral boy, smiling when Kiyotaka rubbed his hand.

 

Kazuichi felt sweat running down his forehead when he saw the body being tossed carelessly to Gundam's chained form and could hear Byakuya telling him to eat when he was ready.

 

The ghouls were experienced and they knew what to expect after this but Gundam's reaction would be just too severe for them if he managed to hit one of them, especially for a human. But the reaction would be painfully slow, leaving them to wait in deathly silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Kazuichi has had a fear of chains ever since his harsh childhood and developed a love for brutalising corpses after their deaths.  
> \- When a ghoul eats a another ghoul, the cells end up reacting with the new cells and develop the new kagune called a kakuja  
> \- Kiyotaka is confirmed to be a scary ghoul from just a crush


End file.
